THE
ALCHEMICAL
BODY
Siddha Traditions in Medieval India
DAVID GORDON
WHITE
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y OF C H I C A G O PRESS / C H I C A G O AND L O N D O N
David Gordon White is associate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Myths of the Dog-Man (1991), also published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London ©1996 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1996 Printed in the United States of America 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 ISBN: 0-226-89497-5 (cloth)
1 2 3 4 5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White, David Gordon. The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India / David Cordon White, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-89497-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Siddhas. 2. Alchemy—Religious aspects— Tantrism. 3. Yoga, Hatha. 4. Tantrism. 5. Natha sect. I. Title. BL1241.56.W47 1996 294.5'5i4—dc2o 96-16977 CIP © The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984.
CONTENTS
PREFACE / ix
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
/ xv
ABBREVIATIONS / xvii
ONE Indian Paths to Immortality / 1
TWO Categories of Indian Thought: The Universe by Numbers / 15
i HRI:I.
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy / 48
FOUR Sourcesfor the History ofTantric Alchemy in India / 78
FIVE Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature I
SIX Tantra in the Rasarnava
/ 171
uj
viii
Contents SEVEN
PREFACE
Corresponding Hierarchies: The Substance of the Alchemical Body / ,84 EIGHT Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body / 2.8 NINE The Dynamics of Transformation in Siddha Alchemy / 26, TEN Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality /
m
EPILOGUE The Siddha Legacy in Modern India / NOTES /
m
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY / 521 INDEX
/
555
)!5
In the new age India of the 1990s, it has become popular, even fashionable, to have the name of a tantrika, a kind of all-purpose sexologist, medicine man, and shaman, in one's little black book of phone numbers. This same phenomenon has brought with it the appearance, preceding the title page of books on magic and tantra, of "disclaimers" to the effect that said book does not guarantee the results of the techniques it is treating and that its editors are not responsible for unhappy side-effects of said techniques when they are practiced in the privacy of one's home. The present work carries no such disclaimer because it in no way purports to be a "how-to" book for realizing immortality. Nor is this a study in the history of Indian medicine or science: a great number of Indian scholars and scientists as well as a growing number of western authors have written excellent works on the matters I will be treating from these perspectives, incorporating into their writings comprehensive overviews of Indian chemistry, human physiology, pharmacology, and therapeutics. The present work is rather a history-of-religions study of the medieval Siddha traditions of Hindu alchemy and hathayoga, which formed two important fields of theory and practice within the vast current of Indian mysticism known as tantra. It is the religious and, more specifically, tantric features of these interpenetrating traditions that I will be treating in these pages, from both a historical and a phenomenological perspective. In the main, this will be a study of the language of mystic experience and expression, and it will be from the standpoint of language that I will chart out the theoretical, symbolic, and analogical parameters of the alchemical and hathayogic disciplines within their broader tantric and Hindu contexts. And, working from the semantic and symbolic fields of meaning that the alchemical material generates, this study will also look at a much wider array of Hindu and Indian phenomena through "alchemical eyes." This will furthermore be a scholarly work, nearly entirely divorced from ix
Preface
Preface
any ground of personal mystical experience. Apart from a short period of schooling in hatha yoga undertaken in Benares in 1984-85, I have never experienced anything that one could qualify as a genuine master-disciple relationship. I have never levitated, read other people's minds, or even seen auras. This being the case, it may well be that I belong to the great mass of those who "must go on blundering inside our front-brain faith in Kute Korrespondences, hoping that for each psi-synthetic taken from Earth's soul there is a molecule, secular and more or less ordinary and named, over here—kicking endlessly among the plastic trivia, finding in each Deeper Significance and trying to string them all together like terms of a power series hoping to zero in on the tremendous and secret Function whose name, like the permuted names of God, cannot be spoken . . . to make sense out of, to find the meanest sharp sliver of truth in so much replication." '
for which these words and images are so many signposts is to generate a symbolic lexicon from the multitude of intersecting words and images the sources offer." Rather than exposing the doctrines of any single school, movement, or exegetical tradition, this study seeks to lay bare the words, images, and logic that a wide swath of the Hindu, and particularly Saiva (and tantric), population always already assume to be the case prior to giving voice to their doctrines. This is, in the main, a study of a pervasive Indian worldview from a tantric and alchemical perspective. Now, if we follow Douglas Brooks when he maintains that Hindu tantrism has been treated as "an unwanted stepchild in the family of Hindu studies";1* and if, as Betty Dobbs has written with regard to its rejection of alchemy as so much fuzzy mysticism, that "modern science, like adolescence, denies its parentage,"9 then the subject of this study has a troubled family life. Perhaps it is the stepparents' and adolescents' judgment that one ought to question here.
Ultimate reality is beyond my reach, either to experience or express. I nonetheless hope that these pages may serve to bridge a certain gap between raw experience and synthetic description, and thereby contribute to an ongoing tradition of cultural exchange that is at least as old as the Silk Road. In reading these pages, the reader may come to experience a sensation of vertigo, as the horizon of one mystic landscape opens onto yet another landscape, equally vast and troubling in its internal immensity. It may be that these landscapes,2 with their dizzying multitudinous levels of selfinterpretation, may inspire analysis by psychologists of both the armchair and professional varieties.' I believe, however, that the most useful western companion to the present study is the work of the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard entitled The Poetics ofSpace1 Bachelard's work is a phenomenological study of literary depictions of the experience of space, from cellar to attic, from Chinese boxes to the interiors of seashells. In these pages I will endeavor to follow just such a phenomenological approach, pointing out homologies where the sources would seem to indicate connections internal to the traditions themselves, without attempting to force the textual data into any preconceived model.5 I treat alchemical and tantric discourse as self-referential, as part and parcel of a self-enclosed network of specifically Indian symbols and signs, my assumption being that the words and images of these traditions are always referring, before all else, to other words and images.6 Therefore, the best way to formulate a theory concerning the nature of the experiences
This book is the fruit of twelve years of research begun at the University of Chicago, where I began to translate the bdnis, the mystic vernacular poems of Gorakhnath, under the direction of Professor Kali Charan Bahl. The use of metaphor and imagery in these poems reminded me of similar language from an alchemical work entitled the Rasarnava (The Flood of Mercury), which I had attempted to translate (with mitigated success) for a self-styled French mystic a few years earlier. It was on the basis of these first tentative identifications that I embarked in earnest on the present research, going to India in 1984-85 under the auspices of a grant from the American Institute for Indian Studies. It had been my intention, in undertaking my research tour, to find a living yoginalchemist and to sit at his feet until I had solved all the riddles the Rasarnava and the Gorakh Bam had posed for me. This endeavor was a total failure. There were no alchemists to be found in the places in which I sought them out (although I did meet a number of amateurs and charlatans), and the few Nath Siddhas who struck me as genuine practitioners of the hatha yoga taught by Gorakhnath made it clear that they would be willing to divulge their secrets to me only after a long period of discipleship. Being a westerner in a hurry, I spurned this path, in spite of its many attractions, for that of the textualist. First in India, under the guidance of a number of professors of Ayurvedic studies, and later in Europe and the United States, then in India and Nepal once again, under the auspices of a grant from the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, I fol-
NOTI-; O N
TRANSLITERATION
Unless otherwise noted, all transliterations from the Sanskrit follow standard lexicographical usage, with the following exceptions: (i) toponyms still in use are transliterated without diacritics (thus Srisailam and not Srisailam), except in the case of sites identified with deities (thus Kedarnath and not Kedarnath); (2) names of authors and editors from the colonial and postcolonial periods are transliterated without diacriticals; (3) the term Nath is transliterated in its modern Hindi form as opposed to the Sanskritic Natha; (4) proper names of historical Nath Siddhas are transliterated with the -nath suffix, as opposed to the Sanskritic-«*7f/w (however, see note 8 to chapter 1).
ABBREVIATIONS
AK ASL
BhP GAU HT
HTSL
Anandakanda of Mahabhairava. Anup Sanskrit Library, Lalgarh Palace, Bikaner, India. Bhutiprakarana of the Goraksa Sarhhita. Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar, India. Sanjukta Gupta, Dirk Jan Hoens, and Teun Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism. Handbuch der Orientalistik, 2.4.2 (Leiden: Brill, 1979). Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta, Hindu Tantric and Sakta Literature (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981).
HYP
Hatbayogapradipika of Svatmarama. KCKT Kakacandisvara Kalpa Tantra. KCM Kakacandesvarimata. KhV Khecari Vidya of Adinatha. KJiiN Kaulajiiananirnaya of Matsyendranath. KM Kubjikamata. KPT Kaksaputa Tantra of Siddha Nagarjuna.
MBbT MSL
NNA
Matrkabheda Tantra. Maharaja Man Singh Library, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, India. Nepal National Archives,
Kathmandu, Nepal. NSC Ramlal Srivastav, ed., "Nath Siddh Carit" Visesank (Yog Vani, special issue no. 1 for 1984). Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1984. Ocean The Ocean ofStoiy Being C. H. Taivney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (or Ocean of Streams of Story), ed. N. M. Penzer, 10 vols. (London: Chas. J. Sawyer, Ltd., 1924-28). RA Rasarnava. RAK Rasarnavakalpa. RC RHT RM RPS RRA
Rasendradidamani. Rasabrdaya Tantra of Govinda. Rasendra Mangala of Sriman Nagarjuna. Rasaprakasa Sudhakara of Yasodhara. Rasaratnakara of Nityanatha.
\%iii
Abbreviations RRS RU RV SDS SSP
Rasaratnasamucchaya of Vagbhatta II. Rasopanisat. Rg Veda. Sarvadarsana Samgraba of Madhava. Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati of Goraksanatha.
SSS
Satsahasra Samhita.
SV
"Siddh Vandanam."
SvT
Svacchanda Tatitra.
TA
Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta
VRA
Vaniaratnakara
VRM
Yogaratnaviala.
vsA
Yogisampradayaviskrti
ONE
Indian Paths to Immortality
The emperor Aurangzeb issued a finnan to Anand Nath, the abbot of Jakhbar, an obscure monastery in the Punjab, in 1661 or 1662: The letter sent by Your Reverence has been received along with two tolabs of quicksilver. However, it is not so good as Your Reverence had given us to understand. It is desired that Your Reverence should carefully treat some more quicksilver and have that sent, without unnecessary delay. A piece of cloth for a cloak and a sum of twenty-five rupees which have been sent as an offering will reach (Your Reverence). Also, a few words have been written to the valiant Fateh Chand to the effect that he should always afford protection.1 The greatest Mogul persecutor of Hinduism in history offers his protection to a Hindu abbot named Nath in exchange for twenty grams of treated mercury. What is the story behind this curious missive?
1. Sexual Fluids in Medieval India Some time around the sixth century A.D., a wave of genius began to sweep over India, a wave that has yet to be stilled. This wave, which took the form of a body of religious thought and practice, has been interpreted in a number of different ways by Indians and westerners alike. What some have called madness and abomination, others have deemed a path to ecstasy or the sublime. Such have been the evaluations of this phenomenon, which has, over some fourteen hundred years, never ceased to enthuse and confound. The Indians who innovated this body of theory and practice called it tantra, "the warp (of reality)." The word has a most ancient pedigree. Its root, tan, means "to stretch," as one would a thread on a loom (also called
3
Chapter One
Indian Paths to Immortality
tantra) or, in Vedic parlance, a body (tann) to be sacrificed on an altar within the ritual framework (tantra).2 Those persons who followed the way of tantra were called tantrikas, and their written and orally transmitted works the Tantras. Indian tantrism,3 in its Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain varieties, did not emerge out of a void. It was on the one hand influenced by cultural interactions with China, Tibet, central Asia, Persia, and Europe, interactions which had the Silk Road and medieval maritime routes and ports as their venue. Much more important, however, were the indigenous Indian roots of tantrism, which was not so much a departure from earlier forms of Hinduism as their continuation, albeit in sometimes tangential and heterodox ways. This book explores the uniquely Indian foundation of tantrism. More specifically, this book is an inquiry into those Hindu sectarian groups that have come to be known as the Siddhas, which, appropriating traditions that were more ancient than those of tantrism itself, did not in fact fully flower until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As a loosely structured religious community identified with a particular body of practice, the Siddhas have had greater staying power than the tantrikas and continue to form a visible part of the Indian religious landscape.
not historical figures but rather demigods and intermediaries between the human and the divine. Cults of these semidivine Siddhas go back to at least the beginning of the common era; they and their peers the Vidyadharas (Wizards) are a standard fixture of Indian fantasy and adventure literature throughout the medieval period.'" Central to these cults was their "popular" soteriology, which had little in common with the "authorized" soteriologies of Vedic and classical Hinduism. The worlds of the Siddhas and Vidyadharas were the closest homologue India has known to popular western notions of heaven as a place of sensual gratification and freedom from the human condition. Those capable of acceding to these atmospheric levels remained there, liberated from the fruits of their acts (karma) and forever exempted from the lower worlds of rebirth (samsara) but not divested of their individuality as is the case with the impersonal workings of release into the Absolute (moksa). A precursor of the Puranic notion of the "seventh heaven" of brahmaloka or satyaloka, the world of the Siddhas was a place that endured even beyond the cyclic dissolution (pralaya) at the close of a cosmic eon (kalpa). This popular tradition, whose reflection is found in the lower hierarchies of the I lindu and Buddhist pantheons, in adventure and fantasy literature, and in humble shrines to these anonymous demigods, lay beyond the pale of brahmanic control and legitimation. So too would the medieval Siddha movements, which appropriated for themselves, with certain modifications, the preexisting Siddha soteriology.
As a common noun, siddha4 means "realized, perfected one," a term generally applied to a practitioner (sadhaka, sadhu) who has through his practice (sadhana) realized his dual goal of superhuman powers (siddhis, "realizations," "perfections") and bodily immortality (jivanmukti). As a proper noun, Siddha becomes a broad sectarian appellation, applying to devotees of Siva in the Deccan (Mahesvara Siddhas),- alchemists in Tamil Nadu (Sittars), a group of early Buddhist tantrikas from Bengal (Mahasiddhas, Siddhacaryas), the alchemists of medieval India (Rasa Siddhas)'' and, most especially, a mainly north Indian group known as the Nath Siddhas.' These last two groups greatly overlapped one another, with many of the most important Nath Siddhas—Gorakh, Matsyendra, Carpati, Dattatreya, Nagnath, Adinath," and others—being the authors (if only by attribution) or transmitters of a wide array of revealed yogic and alchemical teachings. The medieval Nath Siddhas and Rasa Siddhas further interacted with a third group. This was the pas'cimamnaya (Western Transmission), a Sakta sect devoted to the worship of the goddess Kubjika which, based mainly in Nepal, also incorporated tantric," yogic, and alchemical elements into its doctrine and practice. A major point of convergence between these three groups, within the broader tantric matrix, was their cult of the Siddhas who were for them
The most important innovation of these medieval Siddha traditions (the Nath and Rasa Siddhas in particular) was the concrete and coherent method they proposed for the attainment of the Siddha world and Siddha status. This is what had been lacking in the earlier Siddha cults: the belief system was there, but the notions of how to reach that blessed abode were vague at best. Certain traditions maintained that it could be reached through travel," others through the miraculous intervention of the Siddhas one propiated,1-' others through more serendipitous means. The later medieval Siddha movements proposed the following working principle: mere humans could, through their tantric, yogic, and alchemical practice, climb the ladder of being and accede to the ranks of the semidivine Siddhas. In this new perspective one could, by perfecting oneself, transform perfected role models into colleagues. A trace of the notion of a primordial ontological difference between those born perfect and those who made themselves perfect (not unlike the difference between old money and new) remains in works which categorize the Siddhas into the three oghas (streams)—the divine, the perfected, and the human—but the dividing line
4
5
Chapter One
Indian Paths to Immortality
between them was a dotted one that could be crossed through a systematic body of esoteric practice." Apart from this common heritage, a second point of convergence be tween the Nath Siddhas, Rasa Siddhas, and the Western Transmission lies in their common body of mystic doctrines and practices involving sexual fluids—male and female sexual fluids, to be sure, but ever so much more. Since the time of the Vedas, rasa—the fluid element found in the universe, sacrifice, and human beings—has been more or less identified by Indians with the fount of life. All fluids, including vital fluids in humans, plant resins, rain, the waters, and the sacrificial oblation, are so many manifesta tions of rasa.1* So too, since at least the dawn of the common era,'5 Indians have known that the miracle of conception occurs through the union of male and female vital fluids, semen and uterine blood. With early tantrism, these procreative fluids came to be conceived as "power substances" for the worship of and ultimately the identification with gods and goddesses whose boundless energy was often portrayed as sexual in nature. Nearly always, the god in question was some form of Siva, the god whose worship in the form of a liiiga (phallus) dates from at least the second century B.C.' 6 The way to becoming a "second Siva"—for this has nearly always been the goal of tantric practice in its various forms—was, in early tantrism, real ized through the conduit of a horde of wild goddesses (which the tantrikas identified with their human consorts), generally known as yoginis. These "bliss-starved" goddesses, attracted by offerings of mingled sexual fluids, would converge into the consciousness of the practitioner, to transform him, through their limitless libido, into a god on earth.17
ergy, generally called the kundalini, and a male principle, identified with Siva, both of which were located within the subtle body. An intricate meta physics of the subtle body—its relationship to the brute matter of the gross body as well as to the universal divine life force within, the bipolar dynam ics of its male and female constituents, etc.—was developed in every tan tric school.20 It was especially within two tantric sects, the Western Transmission and the YoginI Kaula (transmitted by Matsyendra), that a practical concomitant to this speculative—and in some cases gnoseological or soteriological— metaphysics came to be elaborated. This was hatha yoga, the "method of violent exertion," whose system of the six cakras ("wheels [or circles] of transformation") became the centerpiece of the doctrine and practice of the Nath Siddhas—who claim their origins in the person and teachings of Matsyendranath.2' For the Nath Siddhas, the siddhis and jivanmukti were the direct results of the internal combination and transformation of sexual fluids into amrta, the divine nectar of immortality. Matsyendranath and the founders of the Western Transmission were not alone, however, in their persistent emphasis on the sexual fluids as (generally internalized) power substances, rather than simply as by products of a transubstantiating experience of bliss. At about the same time as their hathayogic systems were being elaborated, the matter of sexual fluids was being broached from a novel and rather unexpected angle by a third group. These were the Rasa Siddhas, the alchemists of medieval In dia, whose doctrines are best summed up in a classic aphorism from the foundational Rasdrnava:yatha lohe tathd dehe, "as in metal, so in the body."-'2
Following the brilliant tenth- through eleventh-century reconfiguration of Trika Kaulism by Abhinavagupta and others, most of the messy parts of tantric practice (at least outward practice) were cleaned up, aestheticized, and internalized in different ways.18 For the later "high" tantric schools, the cult of the yoginis and the ritual production, offering, and consumption of sexual fluids were continued, but only within the restricted context of the "secret practice" of an inner circle of initiates. Outwardly, however, ritual sexuality had undergone a paradigm shift. Sexual fluids themselves were no longer the way to godhead; rather, it was in the bliss of sexual orgasm that one realized god-consciousness for oneself.'1' In certain cases, all such transactions involving sexual fluids became wholly internalized and incorporated into the so-called subtle body {suksma s'arira). Here, all humans were viewed as essentially androgynous with sexual intercourse an affair between a female serpentine nexus of en-
In a universe that was the ongoing procreation of the phallic god Siva and his consort the Goddess,2' a pair whose procreative activity was mir rored in the fluid transactions and transformations of human sexuality, in a universe whose every facet reflected the fundamental complementarity of the male and female principles, the mineral world too had its sexual valences and fluids. In the case of the Goddess, her sexual emission, her seed, took the form of mica, while her uterine or menstrual blood was identified with sulfur. There are a number of reasons for these identifica tions, not the least of which are chemical: mica and sulfur are important reagents in the purification and activation of the mineral homologue to divine semen. This is mercury, and if there ever was an elective affinity to be found at the interface between chemistry and theology, this is it. For what a miraculous mineral mercury is! Mercury is a shining liquid, amaz ingly volatile, seemingly possessed of a life of its own: what better homol-
6
7
Chapter One
Indian Paths to Immortality
ogy could one hope to find for the semen of a phallic god? But this is not all. Mercury's chemical behavior as well is nothing short of miraculous, and as such it stands, in the words of an early twentieth-century scholar alchemist as the "central idea upon which the whole structure of the Hindu Chemistry is erected: viz., the fact that mercury can be made to swallow, by special processes, a considerable quantity of gold or other metals, with out any appreciable increase in the weight of the swallowing mercury."24 Mercury, which when "swooned" drives away disease, "killed" revives itself, and "bound" affords the power of flight,25 is the presence in the mineral world of the sexual essence of the Absolute. As such, it is as all-absorbing as Siva who, at the end of cyclic time, implodes the entire universe into his yogic body, thereby transforming existence into essence. This is precisely what occurs in alchemical reactions. A "seed" (bija) of gold or silver is planted in mercury (whose powers of absorption have been massively enhanced through a series of treatments in sulfur, mica, and other mainly "female" elements), which then becomes possessed of a "mouth" capable of "swallowing," of absorbing into itself, according to the alchemical scriptures, millions, even billions and trillions, of times its mass in base metals. These are thereby transmuted into gold, and in a tra dition in which "gold is immortality,"26 that's saying a mouthful. All that remains is for the alchemist to swallow the mercury in question to himself become a second Siva, an immortal superman (Siddha) whose every bodily secretion becomes transmutative and transubstantiating. In tandem with his work in the laboratory, the Hindu alchemist also engages in the prac tice of hatha yoga, as well as a certain number of erotico-mystical tantric operations involving the sexual fluids that he and his female laboratory assistant generate in order to catalyze reactions between divine sexual fluids in their mineral forms. In the end, all is a continuity of sexual fluids.
sience and attendant sorrows. On the other, for persons still trapped in this world, a good Siddha is hard to find. Hindu tantrism disappeared as a major sectarian phenomenon a number of centuries ago, a victim of its own excesses.27 These excesses were pri marily of two orders. The first and best documented is nonetheless less important than the second. This excess was one of bad publicity. In seek ing to truly live out their principles of nondifference—between god and creature, elite and preterite, squalor and grandeur, the exalted and the demented—many tantrikas, openly indulging in cross-caste adultery, coprophagy, and all manner of other purity violations and antisocial behavior (or at least openly claiming to do so), were simply revolting to the general public. The second excess, which truly sounded the death knell of tantrism as an important religious movement, came as the result of a sea change in tantric theory and practice. Following Abhinavagupta, tantrism became transformed into an elite mystic path that was all too complicated, refined, and cerebralized for common people to grasp. The man on the street could not recognize himself in its discourse. It bore too little resemblance to his experience as a mortal being inhabiting a body doomed to age and die, entangled in the meantime within a network of family and social relations; wielding plowshares, hammers, and the like; living, loving, and dying on the trampled earth of a village his people had inhabited for hundreds of years. The thirty-six or thirty-seven metaphysical levels of being were in comprehensible to India's masses and held few answers to their human concerns and aspirations.
2. Tantrikas, Siddhas, and Yogis The sole surviving heirs to this medieval legacy are the Nath Siddhas, who continue to be revered, on a popular level at least, as India's masters of yoga and wizards of alchemy, the last living guides along the secret paths to supernatural power and bodily immortality. Theirs is a powerful legacy. On the one hand, they are perfected immortals who have chosen to remain in the world of men, moving through it even as they transcend its tran-
For the Nath Siddhas, whose institutionalized sectarian orders (sampradayas) mainly grew out of earlier and more heterodox Saiva orders (the Pasupatas and Kapalikas in particular), the "brahmanization" of tantrism and its departure from the realm of the concrete into that of the sublime came as a boon of sorts. For whereas "high" tantrism was now mainly of fering transcendence of the world, the Nath Siddhas' path continued to offer concrete and relatively accessible power in the world. For the masses, as well as for kings whose concerns were often more this-worldly than those of brahman metaphysicians, the Naths and many of their fellow Sid dhas became the supernatural power brokers of medieval India. The Sid dhas, yogins and alchemists that they are, have always been technicians of the concrete: specialists in the concrete transmutation of base metals into gold and the concrete transformation of mortal, aging man into a per fected, immortal superman, masters of the natural processes rather than mere victims of or bystanders to them. Theirs has always been a path to
8
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Indian Paths to Immortality
mastery and raw, unadulterated power—mastery over the forces of nature, including the inexorable processes of aging and death, and dominion over the temporal powers of even the greatest kings and armies. In this context, the Nath Siddhas have often been cast in the role of kingmakers, elevating untested boys to the thrones of kingdoms through out medieval south Asia, at times bringing down mighty tyrants in the pro cess.28 But India has also always been a country of villages, and the Nath Siddhas, whose backgrounds have generally been humble, have long been the special champions of village India. These are cowherd boys who, hav ing performed minor miracles at an early age, were initiated into a Siddha order and grew up to be immortal, hail-stopping "god men." Many are the accounts I have heard, from traveling salesmen, university students, monastic novices, and village plowboys alike, of these perfected beings who have dotted and even defined the religious landscape of village India with their awesome, death-defying presence.
Vedic, devotional, and "high" tantric religion. On the other hand, they are defined by certain features of their sectarian affiliations and practices: heirs to the heterodox Pasupatas and Kapalikas of an earlier age, they are devo tees of terrible forms of Siva (usually Bhairava) who besmear themselves with ashes, leave their hair uncut, and continue to adhere to the practices of "primitive" tantrism. As such, their "yoga" is more closely identified, in the jaundiced eyes of their critics, with black magic, sorcery, sexual perver sion, and the subversion of alimentary prohibitions than with the practice of yoga in the conventional sense of the term. In recent times, "Yogi" has been most specifically applied to the Nath Siddhas, who are widely known as Kanphata (Split-eared, for the very visible earrings they wear in holes bored through the thick of their ears, the hallmark of the order) Yogis or Jogis—a term that they themselves eschew.
The Nath Siddhas' persistent popular success, coupled with their gen erally humble social backgrounds, the relative accessibility of their path, and the this-worldly focus of their practices and goals, has long made them the object of scorn and censure on the part of India's social, cultural, and religious elites—the upper castes, urban intelligentsia, and cosmopolitan literati whose religious proclivities have tended more towards refined and cosmeticized orthodoxy or cerebralized tantrism. Indeed, the Nath Sid dhas have long been accused of being charlatans or mere conjurers—an accusation that India's street magicians have long used to their advantage, posing as yogins or tantrikas in their performances.29 It is in this context that we must introduce yet another important term to our lexicon. This is the term Yogi (Jfogi, in vernacular parlance), which has to a certain extent supplanted the terms "tantrika," "Kapalika," and "heretic" in orthodox Hindu discourse. While yogi[n] is nothing more than an adjectival or pos sessive form of the term yoga, used to designate a practitioner of yoga, the term came to take on a sectarian and often pejorative connotation in medi eval India, a connotation which has remained operative down to the pres ent day. "Yogi" or "jogi" has, for at least eight hundred years, been an allpurpose term employed to designate those Saiva religious specialists whom orthodox I lindus have considered suspect, heterodox, and even heretical in their doctrine and practice. On the one hand, the Yogis are defined (like the tantrikas of an earlier time) by their nonconformity to and exclusion from orthodox categories: they are that troubling aggregate of sectarian groups and individuals whose language and behavior subvert the canons of
This book, then, is about those tantric movements and sects which called themselves and continue to call themselves Siddhas, but which were—following the "brahmanization" of the tantrism with which they had interacted throughout their early development—branded as Yogis by the Hindu orthodoxy. That these Yogis were alchemists is borne out by no less a person than Marco Polo who, describing a group of ciugi (Jogis) whom he had encountered on the Malabar coast of India at the close of the thirteenth century, attributed their superhuman life spans of 150 to 200 years to their ingestion of an elixir composed of mercury and sulfur.3" Some five hundred years later, Marco Polo's observations are seconded by the French traveler Francois Bernier, a Catholic man of letters, when he notes that the Yogis "know how to make gold and to prepare mercury so admirably that one or two grains taken every morning restore the body to perfect health."3' What links these two accounts in a most startling way is that their descriptions of Yogis both seem to define these figures as alchemists. Yogis were healthy, had good digestion, and lived for hundreds of years because they ingested mercury and sulfur as part of their daily regime. Here, let us also recall that the firman Aurangzeb sent to the Nath Siddha abbot of the Jakhbar monastery was a request for treated mercury. These data, set against the backdrop of the vast wealth of yogic literature—as well as a sprinkling of alchemical works—produced by such illustrious Nath Sid dhas as Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, can lead to only one conclusion. The Siddhas, the Yogis, of medieval India were both alchemists (Rasa Sidd has) and pioneers of hatha yoga (Nath Siddhas). Yoga and alchemy were complementary, interpenetrating disciplines for the medieval Siddhas.
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The Rasa Siddhas and Nath Siddhas, if they were not one and the same people, were at least closely linked in their practice. The balance of this book is devoted to proving this thesis.
There were two ways in which sacrifice saved one from death. The first of these was the mechanism of sacrifice itself. According to brahmanic the ory, the body one inhabited in life was in fact a loan from the gods or, more precisely, from Yama, the Lord of the Dead. As such, sacrifice was nothing other than a payment on a loan; failure to pay (i.e., offer sacrifice) resulted in repossession (i.e., death). In order that his debtors might keep up on their payments, Yama, Vedic Hinduism's cosmic "repo man," threw in a piece of land with the body he loaned: this was the parcel on which the sacrificer installed his household (gdrhapatya) fire.'7 In this context, the English term "mortgage" (literally "dead pledge") for "the conveyance of real or personal property by a debtor to a creditor as security for a debt"38 to be repaid within a fixed period of time takes on a new fullness of mean ing. Under the terms of Yama's and the gods' contract, no human could occupy a body for more than one hundred years, since such would have been tantamount to (divine) immortality. Thus, once again, "a hundred years is tantamount to immortality."
3. T h e Quest for Immortality: T h e Vedic Legacy The altogether human aspiration to be possessed of a body not subject to the trammels of death finds its earliest Indian expression in the ca. 1200 B.C. Rg Veda, in which a poet pleads "Deliver me from death, not from nondeath." ,: Mere, the Vedic term amna is a polyvalent one, at once signi fying nondeath (a-mrta), immortality, the immortals (the gods), the world of the immortals (heaven)- and nectar or ambrosia (which is the Greek cognate of amna), the draft of immortality, by which the gods remain im mortal. It is this final gloss that is the most pregnant with meaning for the later traditions I treat in these pages. In the Vedic context, the gods win and maintain their eternal life by offering soma, the miraculous herb of immortality, as a sacrificial oblation among themselves. Here, the rich Vedic (and Indo-European) mythology of the theft of soma"—from either the atmospheric Gandharvas or the rival Asuras (antigods)—is given a particularly sacrificial gloss in the priestly tradition of the brahmanic literature. It is not enough to simply possess the soma—or any sacrificial oblation for that matter—to benefit from it. Rather, as the gods first discovered, it is by offering or surrendering the sacrifice to an other (god) that its benefits accrue to the sacrificer. The brutish Asuras, unable to fathom this secret, each offered the oblation into his own mouth and so failed to win (the benefits of) the world of the sacrifice.34 In the Vedic present, humans who have now learned the secret of sacri fice come to reap its benefits by offering the sacrificial oblation (idealized as soma regardless of the oblatory material) to the gods. The oblation sus tains the gods and maintains their immortality; moreover, the fruit of the sacrifice that accrues to the human sacrificer also takes the form of a certain order of immortality." In addition to fulfilling to the more or less mundane aspirations of the brahmanic sacrificer—wealth in cows, faithful wives, sons, etc.—the principal fruit of the sacrifice was a mitigated immortality for a "full life span" (visvayus) of one hundred years. Therefore, in order to live a full life, one had to sacrifice constantly, "for a hundred years is tanta mount to immortality."16
The second way in which the sacrifice saved humans from death lay in the nature of the oblation itself. Soma, the divine nectar of immortality, was, in the time of the Vedas, considered (or fantasized) to be accessible to humans, whence such hymns as: "We have drunk the Soma; we have be come immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods. . . . Far-famed Soma, stretch out our lifespans so that we may live.... The drop that we have drunk has entered our hearts, an immortal inside mortals."3" I .ike fire (agtii), soma is both a substance and the god identified with that fluid oblation.40 Early on, however, Soma the god became identified with the moon (Indu, in Vedic parlance), which was considered to be a drop (indu) of nectar (amna), of soma, shining in the heavens.41 But the moon, this drop of nectar, was nothing other than divine seed (retas),42 which was identified by analogy with vital fluids both animal and vegetable {rasa),4'1 as well as with the vivifying rains and waters (ftp), which were so many medi cines or remedies (bhesaja) for all that ails mortal man.44 It is the fluid element (rasa), then, that the Vedic theoreticians conceived as the support of all life and indeed of nondeath for humans as well as gods. As I have already noted, however, the potential of the fluid oblation could not be activated or realized without the dynamic of sacrifice, which also brought two other elements into play: these were fire (agni), divinized as Agni, the god of fire; and wind (vayu), the active element of exchange,
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which conveyed the essence of the sacrificial oblation from the world of humans to the divine realm. This trinity of elements (and gods) was com plemented by another conceptual triad, which served and continues to serve as the ground for the network of homologies and analogies that are the framework of the entire sweep of Indian symbol systems. This is the triad constituted by the human being (microcosm), the mediating mecha nism of the sacrifice (mesocosm), and the universe as a whole (macro cosm)—which is often conceived as the body of a universal man or god.4' A passage from the Satapatha Brahmana (9.5.1.11) plays on all of these interrelations: "When he [the sacrificer] has offered in the fire, he drinks [so?na]; for that [fire altar] is his divine body, and this [the sacrificer's body] is his [the fire god Agni's] human one."
was the installation of a golden image of a man {hiranya-purusa) beneath a corner of the altar emplacement. With this ritual, the adhvaryu priest in toned, "lie is Prajapati, he is Agni, he is made of gold for gold is light and fire is light; gold is immortality and fire is immortality. He is a man for Prajapati is the Man."47 Let us note here that the thermal energy that transforms the body of Prajapati into gold (and in other myths of this sort, the entire created uni verse in all its parts) is an inner fire or heat that is kindled through religious austerities. Within a few centuries of the composition of this Brahmana text, a revolution in Indian thought would issue into the notion that hu mans too could internalize the sacrifice and thereby entirely bypass the mechanism of external sacrifice. This inward turn, which would ground the entire gnostic and nondualist project of the Upanisads, also sowed the seeds for the innovation of a body of techniques for internal bodily trans formation—i.e., for the practice of hathayoga. Here one's bodily fluids, and semen in particular, become identified with the oblation, the heat of inner austerities with fire, and breath with the dynamic element of wind.48
As I will show, this threefold structure, in combination with the triad of fluid-fire-wind, comes to inform both medical and yogic models of diges tion, conception, metabolism, and bodily regeneration, as well as alchemi cal models of the chemical reactions between the fluid element mercury (called rasa) and the fiery element sulfur, transmutation in the laboratory, and the transubstantiation of the human body. Already in Vedic traditions we find embryonic notions of this interplay between the human, divine, and sacrificial—and mineral—realms. In a hymn of praise to oda?ia, the sacrificial porridge, the Atharva Veda (11.3.12,7-8) states that "of this porridge Brhaspati is the head, Brahman the mouth, heaven and earth the ears, sun and moon the eyes, the seven seers the in- and out-breaths. .. dark metal its flesh, red metal its blood, tin its ash, gold its complexion."46 Later, the Satapatha Brahmana (6.1.3.1-5) puts a mineral twist on one of its many accounts of the creation of the universe through the self-sacrifice of the cosmic god-man Prajapati: Verily, Prajapati alone was here in the beginning. He desired ".Vlay I exist, may I reproduce myself." He toiled, he heated himself with in ner heat. From his exhausted and overheated body the waters flowed forth . . . from those heated waters foam arose; from the heated foam there arose clay; from the heated clay, sand; from the heated sand, grit; from the heated grit, rock; from the heated rock, metallic ore; and from the smelted ore, gold arose. T h e Vedic ritual in which the exhausted and decomposed body of the creative self-sacrificer Prajapati was restored to wholeness was called the agnkayana, the "piling of [the] Fire [altar]," of which an important moment
It is in the Atharva Veda in particular that we find the most important foundations for the later medical and alchemical traditions, which sought to extend (indefinitely) the life span of human beings. Indeed, it is in this text that one finds the greatest preponderance of healing hymns involving the use of charms and herbal remedies to restore the ailing patient to health. At the center of this practice stood the healer (bhisaj) who was also a possessed "shaker" (vipra) and an inspired master of incantation (kavi).49 Part physician, part shaman, part sorcerer, the atharvan priest was viewed as both powerful and dangerous by Vedic society. For this very reason, perhaps, his heir, the itinerant Ayurvedic physician (carana-vaidya) was also regarded with suspicion by "good" brahmanic society.511 That the Hindu medical tradition (Ayurveda, the "science of longevity") is the self-conscious heir to the Atharvavedic synthesis is clearly evinced in the Caraka Samhita, the textual cornerstone of this tradition: "The physi cian [vaidya] . .. should manifest his devotion to the Atharva Veda .. . be cause the Veda of the atharvans has discussed medicine [cikitsa] by way of prescribing donations, propitiatory rites, offerings, auspicious rites, obla tions, observance of rules, expiations, fasting, and mantras; and because it indicates that medicine improves the quality of life."'1 Within the Indian medical science of Ayurveda, the term employed for the prestigious body of techniques devoted to rejuvenation therapy is rasayana, the "path of rasa" of which an important component consists in the
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application of herbal remedies, inherited in part from the Atharva Veda. This same term, rasayana, is also used by the Rasa Siddhas to designate their alchemical "Work in two parts," with its dual emphasis on transmuta tion and bodily transubstantiation. In this alchemical context, rasa is a term for the fluid metal mercury, the mineral hierophany of the vital seed of the phallic god Siva.
TWO
Categories of Indian Thought: The Universe by Numbers
i. Microcosm, Macrocosm, and Mesocosm Of all the conceptual constructs I treat in this book, the most pervasive and persistent by far is that which treats of the multivalent relationships or homologies obtaining between the individual and the world, or the micro cosm and the macrocosm. Spanning the history of ideas the world over, three broad strategies for describing this relationship have predominated. These are the monist (which maintains that creature, creation, and creator are essentially one), the dualist (all is two), and the atomist (all is many)— with a myriad of permutations, qualifications, and recombinations on these three basic organizing principles. Although the sacrificial worldview of the Vedas was a dualistic one, it was one that nonetheless allowed for a breakthrough or transfer to occur —via the sacrifice—between man in the world and the gods in heaven, between the human world order and divine cosmic order (which together formed a whole called nd). As a transfer mechanism or template between the two orders of being, between the human (adhyatman) and the divine (adhidevata), the sacrifice became possessed of an ontological status of its own. That which pertained to the sacrifice (yajna), to that pivot between the human and divine worlds without which neither could survive, was termed adhiyajna} This tripartite configuration, undoubtedly the most pervasive structure to be found in the Indian world of ideas, has come to be applied to a myriad of domains, across a wide array of religions, philoso phies, and scientific disciplines, including those of yoga and alchemy. I term the three members of this configuration—of human + mediating structure 4- divine—as microcosm, mesocosm, and macrocosm.1
Over time, the mechanism of sacrifice itself came to take precedence over both the humans who enacted it and the gods to whom it was offered, and so we find, in the tenth- through eighth-century B.C. body of reve■s
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lation known as the Brahmanas (Priestly Books), the notion that the sacri fice (or the ritual of sacrifice) is all that truly matters in the universe. Hu mans and gods become tributary to the sacrifice in this period, and the solegods granted any importance are precisely gods of sacrifice. These are (i) Purusa/Prajapati, the "Man" or "Lord of Creatures" whose primal (self-) sacrifice, which "created" the universe, stands as the model for every sacri fice that has followed; (2) Agni, "(Sacrificial) Fire," and (3) Soma, the "Fluid" god of the sacrificial oblation. In a sense, this brahmanic triad of sacrificial gods is itself a reworking of the triune Vedic universe, with two static elements (gods and humans, oblation and fire) being mediated by an active third element (the enacted sacrifice). Throughout the history of Indian thought, no set of concrete elements has been as pervasive as this sacrificial triad—of fluid, fire, and air; of rasa, agni, and vayu. Although the three members of this triad have, according to their specific fields of application, taken the form of moon-sun-wind, semen-blood-breath, or mercury-sulfur-air, they have always borne the same valences as they did in their original Vedic context. Much of this book will be devoted to describing the ways in which fluid, semen, moon, and mercury on the one hand, and fire, blood, sun, and sulfur on the other—always mediated by the active element of air, wind, and breath— have interacted with one another through the "sacrificial" structure of microcosm-mesocosm-macrocosm, across a dozen interpenetrating ritual and belief systems and some three thousand years of cultural history. Two other features of the Vedic synthesis which have persisted through time need also to be mentioned here. The first of these is a fascination with number. If, as the Brahmanic sources assert, the sacrifice in all its parts is identical to the universe in all its parts, then it is necessary to enumerate all of those parts, and "cross-list" them with other parts. More than this, the number of parts in a given whole—for example, the 4 X 1 1 syllables of the tristubh meter—has a significance which is independent of that ag gregate of parts for which it is the numerical index. Thus, it was not un common for the priestly commentators on the ritual to wax poetic on the "eleven-ness" of the number eleven, and so on.' This Vedic fascination becomes a veritable obsession in tantrism, in which we witness nothing less than an explosion of numbers, categories, and numbers as categories. In the tantric case, the hallucinating proliferation of number-based homologies—between microcosm, mesocosm, and macrocosm—appears, in the final analysis, to serve to reassure the tantric practitioner of the efficacy of his ritual acts—something akin, perhaps, to the many numerical proofs for
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the existence of God that illuminated western savants have proferred over the centuries. Number and proportion become the very foundation of the good, the true, and the beautiful, in the petals of the lotus, just as they do in their western reflection, the Secret Rose. Much of this chapter will be devoted precisely to this matter of numeri cal progression, from duality to ternarity and thence to pentads, the num ber sixteen, and the staggering figures given in Hindu reckonings of the duration of the cosmic eons (kalpas). Out of all these dilations of number, however, there emerges a single bipolar4 dynamic that has played itself out in the form of four interrelated temporal cycles that Hindus have em ployed, over the centuries, to situate the microcosmic individual within (or without) the macrocosmic flow of time. A series of charts will illustrate these interrelated cycles. A second leitmotif concerns the dynamics of the sacrificial and later sys tems. The aggregate of microcosm-mesocosm-macrocosm would not be an interesting or useful one were an exchange not possible among the three levels. This is the exchange, nay the transformation, that is effected through sacrifice, that most exalted of human activities, in which men "do what the gods did in the beginning."5 As I have already indicated, the sacri ficial world order was dualistic: there was a sharp break between the human order and the divine, cosmic order, which only sacrifice could bridge. This it did as if magically: a pot broken in this world, that is, in the sacrificial context, becomes a whole pot in that world of the gods/' The metaphysics that flowed from this system therefore assumed the building blocks of real ity to be discrete and impermeable. Its dynamic was one of differentiation and reintegration. This dualistic approach, which finds early expression in the Rgvedic "Hymn of the Man" (10.90), is restated time and again in later texts, sometimes taking on sexual valences (to describe a universe in which all is ultimately two), such as in a Brbadaranyaka Upanisad myth which de picts Prajapati as splitting into male and female halves to incestuously rein tegrate "himself" through all manner of human and animal forms.7 This is the mythic foundation of Sarnkhya, literally the "enumerating" philosophy, the earliest of the Indian philosophical systems. Out of this dualist system, or perhaps in response to it, there emerged another current of thought, this a mystic and monistic one which, on the contrary, assumed a continuity of being, extending unbroken from the su preme absolute down to the lowest forms of inert matter. Because all being, every being, was emanated from a primal and ultimate source, it thereby participated in some way in the very Being of that Absolute. This gno-
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Categories of Indian Thought
seological doctrine, first promulgated in the Aranyakas (the ca. seventhcentury B.C. "Forest Books") and the classic Upanisads (the ca. sixthcentury B.C. traditions of "Placing in Equivalence") maintained that all bodies, but especially all souls (dtman), participated in the nature of the absolute or universal soul (brahman). If "atman is brahman in a pot [the body]," then one need merely break the pot to fully realize the primordial unity of the individual soul with the plenitude of Being that was the Abso lute. To know it was to be it." This early monism is known by the name of Vedanta, because it is broached in the Upanisads, that corpus which con stitutes the "end (anta) of the Veda." As we will see later in this chapter, it was likely the concrete experience of yoga that gave rise to this mystical and monistic vision. All apparent oppositions—between god and man, be tween male and female, etc.—here become consumed as it were in the fires of yogic austerities (tapas) conceived as the intemalization of the sacrifice. The notion of transfer (from one plane to another) becomes metamor phosed into one of transformation (one plane primordially and ultimately is—the same as—the other), with the human body itself becoming the seat of the sacrifice and the human soul the indwelling Absolute. These two dynamic systems, of dualist differentiation and reintegration and monist emanation and participation, inform, singly or in combination, all of the Indian traditions that pass in review in these pages. They are vital to an understanding of any and every Indian metaphysical system.
exists between the subtle and gross body. To the five gross elements that are the building blocks of the gross body and the universe correspond the five subtle elements (as well as the five senses of grasping and of percep tion). More than this, the universal macrocosm and the human microcosm are essentially composed of a "layering" of the elements. Armed with the knowledge that the body is nothing more than a series of overlays of the five hierarchized elements, Indian mystic thought innovated a concrete technique for the return of being into essence, for the resorption of the human microcosm into its divine source. By first "imploding" the lower gross elements into the higher, the practitioner could thence implode, via the subtle ether, the gross into the subtle and by degrees telescope the sub tle back into its essential source, the individual soul (atman) which, as the Upanisadic gnosis never tired of reiterating, was identical to the universal Soul, the absolute brahman. Later, Hindu Tantra would carry this reason ing to its logical conclusion, conceptually imploding body, individual soul, and divine Soul into One:
If we are to understand the dynamics of these systems, two further no tions are absolutely essential here. The first concerns the nature of the "body" that transmigrates from the corpse of a deceased person to a world of intermediate afterlife, identified in Upanishadic Hinduism with the moon. This body, termed the "body of enjoyment" (bhoga-s'arira), is an elaboration on the subtle body (suksma s'arira), i.e., the "living being" (jiva) that, according to nondualist thought, mediates between the eternal but wholly intangible soul and the gross body (sthula s'arira) composed of the five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and ether. As I demonstrate, the subtle body—especially when it is "clothed" in the body of enjoyment—becomes lunar at certain points in its cyclic existence, filling out and diminishing, in the unending course of births and deaths, around the "core" of the immor tal soul. Like the moon itself, this transmigrating body is also "fluid"; like the moon, the subtle body is composed of incremental digits or members (kalas)'' that come into being and pass away, to be renewed yet again. The second basic notion concerns the five elements to which I referred a moment ago. In the individual, it is via these elements that a correlation
Ultimately the conscious bits of the universe, like stones, are also God and hence consciousness, but a consciousness that has decided to conceal itself (at?nasa?nkoca) . . . The world of the Tantric, then, is ultimately all God, but it contains a vast range of things, from things as gross as stones to things as subde as God . . . Looking from God downwards, we have the range from conscious to unconscious, the range from simple to complex, and the range from subtle to gross. These three ranges are co-ordinate; in fact they are different aspects of the same thing. Moreover, movement down the scale is precisely what happens when God creates the universe.10
2. Ternarity and Bipolarity in Veda and Ayurveda Two practical disciplines that grew out of the Vedic matrix to interact with Hindu and Buddhist philosophical and mystic traditions well before the beginnings of the tantric age were Ayurveda and the body of physical and meditative techniques known as yoga. Both traditions have their origins in the Vedas, both emerge as systems of thought and practice in or around the sixth century B.C., and both continue to share common methods and goals down to the present day. When we go back to the very first use of term yoga, in the Rg Veda (7.86.8; 10.166.5), w e find that it ls P a r t of a
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compound:yoga-ksema means "harmonious adjustment."'1 As we will see, the principal aim of Ayurvedic practice is also adjustment: sama-yoga is the harmonious conjunction of microcosmic and macrocosmic "climates." Also growing out of the Vedic matrix is the metaphor of cooking for such trans formative processes as sacrifice, cremation, digestion, aging, and the yogic austerities. As in Vedic sacrifice, so in yoga and Ayurveda: the body is to be "cooked to a turn" (paripakva).12 The extent to which the yogic and Ayurvedic perspectives interacted with other nascent Indian traditions is incalculable. The organizing prin ciples of the sixth-century B.C. teachings of the Buddha on suffering and its cessation were essentially medical;" conversely, one finds Buddhist ter minology as well as an inductive method that is clearly Buddhistic14 in the most venerable textual pillar of Ayurveda, the Caraka Sa?hhita (compiled between the third century B.C. and the fourth century A.D.).15 This same source contains what is perhaps the earliest complete expression of Samkhya philosophy that has come down to us.16 Towards the end of this same period, such Upanisads as the Prasna (3.6), and Maitri(6.2i, 30; 7.n.2-5) were tentatively charting the yogic body and practicing yoga as a means to concretely experiencing the absolute in ways that were deeper than reason could know.17 It is not our intention here to trace a chain of transmission of ideas from one tradition to another, but rather to present them as vari ations on a sensus communis that existed in India from a very early time, even before the recorded teachings of the Buddha, the proto-Samkhya of Caraka, and the dualist Samkhya and the monistic Vedanta of the early Upanisads. Here, we follow the French physician and historian of Indian medicine Jean Filliozat, when he states that "the Samkhyan concepts, like those of Ayurveda, are part and parcel of the intellectual baggage common to all Indian thinkers."18 According to Ayurveda, the human being is composed of a triad of psy chic being (sattva), soul (atman), and body (sartra), which arises from yet is distinct from purusa, the transcendent self. Ayurveda is thus a dualistic sys tem. Like all living creatures, the human being is possessed of natural char acteristics (prakrti), which are sixfold: the five gross elements (mahabhutas) presided over by the atman: "Earth is that which is solid in man, water is that which is moist, fire is that which heats up, air is breath, ether the empty spaces, brahman is the inner soul (atman)"1'' As such, the human self is an exact replica of the macrocosm: "Indeed, this world is the measure (sammita) of the man. However much diversity of corporeal forms and sub-
Categories of Indian Thought
stances there is in the world, that much [diversity] there is in man; however much there is in man, that much there is in the world."20 When applied to the medical tradition proper, these concepts define the physician's craft: the treatment of imbalances between the bodily micro cosm and the universal macrocosm, i.e., of diseases. Critical to the Ayur vedic understanding of the body and its metabolic functions is its concep tualization of the process of digestion. This is a seven-step process, in which the food one eats is serially "burned" or refined, over the seven "fires of digestion" (dhatvagnis) into the seven bodily constituents (dbatus).21 In order, these are chyle (rasa),22 blood (rakta), flesh (mamsa), fat (medas), bone (asthi), marrow (majja), and finally, in men, semen or sperm (mkra, retas).2i In women, the seventh dhatu is uterine or menstrual blood (sonita, artava), or, after childbirth, breast milk.24 Ayurveda further conceives of bodily metabolism in terms of an inter action between the dosas, the three "morbid states"25 or humors, of phlegm (slemia), bile (pitta), and wind (vata). While we may see in the humors a reapplication of the Vedic rasa-agni-vayu triad, we should note that they also anticipate one of India's most important metaphysical constructs, that of the three "strands" (gunas) of manifest being, the discussion of which is first broached in the classic Upanisads. According to Samkhya, the three strands—white sattva, red rajas, and black tamas—remain in a state of equi librium for so long as the universe persists in a nonmanifest state. It is an unexplained disturbance in their equilibrium that triggers a gradual fall into manifestation, which is cast as the self-reproduction of the original materiality (prakrti).2'' The Ayurvedic dosas are of the same order as the gimas in the sense that, for so long as a human being is not exposed to the outside world (when in the womb, for example), it enjoys a perfect balance of dosas.27 When, how ever, it becomes exposed to the outside world, the dosas fall out of balance and the individual becomes subject to health disorders. It is in these cases that the Ayurvedic physician must intervene to restore the lost equilibrium between the bodily microcosm and the universal macrocosm, a macrocosm whose climatic changes are governed by the interactions of moon (rasa), sun (agni), and wind (vayu).2* As we will show, the physician's most power ful weapon against such humoral imbalances is the sequestering of his pa tient in an edifice identified with that womb within which his dosas had originally been in perfect balance. The identification of the three dosas with the three components of sacri-
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fice is also explicit in Ayurveda. The body's inner fire (antaragni) is rep resented by the fiery liquid that is bile; phlegm is "lunar" (saumya) fluid, and the microcosmic wind bears the same name as it does in the macro cosm: vayu (or vdta). Each of these three dosas is further subdivided into five types. In the case of the windy humor, the five breaths are known as: prana, the in-breath that enters the body via the nostrils and sustains the body; udana, the out-breath that is the vehicle of speech; samana, the breath that moves food through the digestive organs and kindles the fires of diges tion; apana, the breath that voids the lower body of excretions; and vydna, the breath that circulates throughout the body, vehiculating the inner fluids and producing bodily locomotion.2'' Similarly, there are five "lunar" phlegms and five "fiery" biles, the first of which is the fire of digestion (pacaka). In the process of digestion, the product of each cooking process is of a more refined nature, but also of a lesser volume than that dhatu from which it is produced.'0 This is perceived as a long and even dangerous process. Over the period of twenty-eight days required for the "raw" food one consumes to be fully transformed into semen, the human microcosm is subject to a certain number of dan gers. These dangers are of two orders. The first of these concerns only males directly. This is the sex drive, which inclines men to lose, in a single stroke, all that a full month of digestion has provided them: I return to this special problem at the end of this book. The second of these, of a more general order, is the nature of the universal macrocosm or ecocosm, the many climatic changes of which constitute so many threats to the human microcosm and so many challenges to the Ayurvedic physician.
medicines, and clinical techniques appropriate to a specific locus in time and space (rtu-satmya), is able to ensure the continuity of the good life. Ultimately, one may conceive of the physician's practice as one of con fronting time—both the time that ages mortals and saps them of life (time as death) and the time that takes the form of seasonal or temporal changes which have more immediate effects on the human organism. In Vedic sac rifice, "articulating activity" (rtu) is the foundation of a universe that is well-ordered, regulated, or "articulated" (rta). Thus the Vedic god of sacri fice Prajapati, who is also the year, is reordered, rearticulated, and recon structed through the human activity of sacrifice. With the last of the Brahmanas, the Gopatha Brahmana, these notions become applied to the treatment of disease: "It is at the turning points between seasons that afflictions arise; therefore, sacrifices are performed at the turning points between seasons." " In Ayurveda, however, the situation becomes altered if not reversed: time is of two orders, both "objective" and "subjective," with the physician able to act on the latter alone, i.e., the in ternal evolution of the patient's disease, his imbalance of the three humors. External time takes the form of the changing of the seasons, which, when they are excessively unbalanced, constitute an excessive conjunction (atiyoga) or insufficient conjunction (a-yoga) of time (kala). Kala, that allconquering deity of the Atharva Veda (19.53.1-9), ' s capable of destroying life in this way; the physician pits himself against Time's excessive or insuf ficient conjunctions by adjusting the microcosm to the macrocosm: this is
The vaidya is armed with two powerful weapons for battling the hu moral imbalances that so threaten the harmonious functioning of the di gestive and metabolic processes. First, he may calm {samana) the overaccumulation of a given dosa internally, through dietary regimen and the use of pharmaceutical preparations, the scientific development of which owes much to the alchemical tradition in India. Should this fail, he may take recourse to external purifications (s'odhana) through clinical therapy which in an unexpected way constitutes an adaptation of a number of yogic prin ciples and techniques. We now turn to the conceptual foundations that undergird these two Ayurvedic techniques. In a groundbreaking study written twenty years ago," Francis Zimmermann set forth the Ayurvedic principles for adjusting the human micro cosm to the universal macroclimate or ecocosm. Here, he outlined the ways in which the Ayurvedic physician, by employing dietary regimens,
called sama-yoga.il
In Ayurveda, the excessive manifestations of time that the physician must most often combat are the three "extreme" seasons of the Indian year, seasons that correspond to the three dosas. To winter correspond accumula tions and disturbances in the phlegm; the hot season is identified with ex cesses of wind; and the rainy season with excessive bile.'4 More important for our concerns than this tripartite division, however, is the bipolar struc ture underlying it. In models that were being developed simultaneously in Upanishadic and Ayurvedic circles, the round of the seasons and the cycles of life and death were ultimately reducible to a single dynamic: this was an ongoing tug-of-war, between sun and moon, in which the prize was mois ture, in the especial form of vital fluids. So the year was divided into two semesters: the fiery (agneya), in which a blazing sun, which rose higher in the sky with every passing day, drained (adana, "captation") the fluid life principle out of all living creatures, and the lunar (saumya), during which the moon, relatively higher in the sky than the lowering sun, poured (vi-
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sarga, "release") more moisture into the world (through the rains of which it is the presumed source) than the sun was able to draw out.'" The first of these two semesters roughly corresponds to the period be tween the winter and summer solstices, during which the sun's angle of elevation increases and the point of sunrise moves northward along the horizon with each passing day; the second approximates the period be tween the summer and winter solstices, when the sun's angle of elevation decreases and its apparent movement along the horizon follows a southerly course. In India, these are known as the northern course (uttardyana) and southern course (daksindyana), respectively: their "turning points" (samkrdnti) fall on 14 January and (approximately) 14 July, respectively.'6 The northern course is, throughout much of the Indian subcontinent, a long period of increasing dessication, culminating in the blazing dry heat of the hot season; the southern course begins with the torrential rains of the summer monsoon and ends with the gentler winter monsoon. The latter is a life-giving season in which creatures thrive; the former—in which wind and heat are combined—can prove deadly to all. The latter is a time of life, even immortality; the former a time of death.'7
The importance of this myth, and of the conjunction of the disease of royal consumption and the height of the hot season, lies in the dire effects of sun and fire (agni) on moon and fluid (rasa). Here the parallel, between the fiery (dgneya) and lunar (saumya) semesters of the year on the one hand, and the waning and waxing fortnights of the lunar month on the other, is transparently evident. In both cases, that half of a temporal cycle character ized by dessication (of the ecosystem, of the moon's rasa) is associated with the heat of the sun and death. Royal consumption is most likely to occur at the end of the solar semester, just as the disappearance of King Moon occurs at the end of a dark fortnight during which he has dissipated himself by exposing himself to the draining heat of the sexual embrace of the starry woman RohinT. King Moon's loss of rasa is manifested in the latter half of his monthly cycle, by the waning of the moon, by its diminution, by one digit (kala) on each succeeding night. And, at the end of its dark fortnight, the moon, completely dissipated, disappears.41
It is precisely with the culmination of the northern course that the "ontological disease" of rajayaksma, "royal consumption," is said to occur in humans. According to both medical' 8 and literary1'' convention, the king who allows himself to become debauched in the clutches of too many pas sionate women also falls prey to "royal consumption": as a result, his king dom, sapped of all its rasa, withers and dies. In Hindu mythology, the pro totypical king to suffer from royal consumption is the moon itself, the same moon that is responsible for revivifying a dessicated world at the end of each hot season, the same moon whose substance, whose fluid rasa, has been identified, since at least the time of the Taittiriya Sambitd (2.3.5.2) with semen. In his mythic loss and recovery of his rasa, Candra, King Moon, is married to the twenty-seven (or twenty-eight) daughters of Daksa, who are the stars that make up the naksatras, the lunar mansions through which the moon passes in its waxing and waning phases. On each night, he dallies and makes love to his wives, but it is in the embrace of his favorite, RohinT, that he passes the most time. It is here that Candra, at that point at which he is "closest to the sun," spends himself completely in the clutches of his starry wife, and the moon disappears. His rasa, his vigor, his semen completely dried up, the moon must perform a soma (which is both a name for and the stuff of the moon, the rasa par excellence) sacrifice in order to recover his lost rasa, and so the cycle begins anew.40
The moon can and does, however, return to wholeness, over the fifteen days of the waxing fortnight; and versions of the myth of King Moon found in Ayurvedic sources demonstrate his rehabilitation (as well as that of hu mans smitten with the same ailment) through elixir therapy, rasayana. In deed, one of the earliest medical references we have to the internal use of mercury—also called rasa, the vital fluid of the god Siva—prescribes it as a treatment for increasing the production of male semen (sukravrddhi). The duration of the treatment is most significant: "like the moon (sas'anka), the bodily dhdtus are replenished over fifteen days."42 This connection, between the gradual replenishment, even rejuvena tion, of a dissipated moon and that of dissipated human bodies takes us to the heart of the two crowning disciplines of the Indian medical tradition. These are rasayana, elixir or rejuvenation therapy; and vdjikarana, sexual rehabilitation therapy. Both of these branches of Ayurveda assume that youthful vigor is primarily a matter of good digestion which, when overly troubled by "excessive manifestations of time," must be restored through more radical treatments than special dietary regimens or purification techniques. As we have noted, the end product of digestion is, in males, semen—semen that is homologized with the rasa of the moon, soma, the nectar of immortality. As such, semen is called saumya, lunar, like the semester characterized by an outpouring of vitalizing moisture into the ecosystem. As such, microcosmic semen is subject to many of the same dangers as the macrocosmic moon. On the one hand, it takes either a lunar fortnight (as indicated above) or a lunar month (the same time it takes a
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woman's body to produce an ovum) for the food males ingest to become fully transformed into semen.4' On the other, it requires a prodigious quantity of food to produce a single gram of semen.44 These perceived dangers to the very survival of the male sexual fluid are compounded by an Ayurvedic identification of female uterine blood with the fiery (dgneya) sun that drains the ecocosm of all its vitalizing moisture in the first semester of the year:45 the "lunar" semen a male is capable of producing is but a drop in the fiery maelstrom of his partner's sexual fluid. In this context, the venerable Ayurvedic treatments for the replen ishment of vital male fluids have come of late to enjoy a renaissance all across India. Ayurvedic giipta rog (the "secret" or "hidden affliction") clin ics, which specialize in the treatment of "sexual disorders" whose prime symptom is the birth of daughters, have been mushrooming across India for the past several decades. The techniques these modern clinics employ, however, and the medicines they dispense are essentially the same as those employed over the past two millennia for such ailing kings (royal patrons of the medical and alchemical authors) as King Moon. In the classic Ay urvedic sources, rasayana, the seventh branch of Ayurveda, is a holistic approach to increasing bodily longevity through the use of plant- and mineral-based elixirs in combination with clinical therapeutic techniques. Intimately associated with rasayana is the eighth and final branch of Indian medical science. This is vajikarana, treatments for increasing male vigor and virility,4'' which the fathers of Ayurveda quite sensibly placed after rasayana, reasoning that a long and healthy life was a necessary precondition to a long and happy sex life. This near identification of virility with longev ity is a fundamental one in India, linking together the bodily processes of digestion, semen production and retention, conception, and reproduction.
On successive days in the first week, he vomits, purges, and emits fluids.. . His hair, nails, teeth, and skin fall off and are soon regener ated. But before the regeneration begins, he is a ghastly sight. .. Very soon the skin of the man begins to grow n o r m a l . . . For some time, the person thus has to be nursed through all the growing stages of a new-born babe, oil smearing, bathing, feeding, and putting to sleep in [a] soft bed. Before the close of the first month, the person begins to develop a new set of teeth . . . After some more time . . . his old hair is removed and then he develops a luxuriant growth of jet black hair. Later still . .. exposure is practised as in the case of a child. [He is] carefully and gradually [taken] from the innermost room of the kuti into the second enclosure, then into the third, and finally into the open sun and air, all in the course of about thirty days. After nearly three months or more . . . he may be in a fit condition to go about in the world.47
Here, the most elaborate and prestigious body of rasayana therapy once again refers back to the myth of King Moon. This is the treatment known as kutipraves'a, "entering into the hut," in which the patient is sequestered within the triply enclosed (trigarbha) innermost chamber of a hut called the "womb of the womb" (garbha-garbham). Any resemblance to the female reproductive system is altogether intentional here, with the rebirth of the patient being portrayed quite literally: The soma plant brought into the kuti. . . [is] cut with a gold imple ment, and [its] milk collected in golden cup. With one dose of soma milk in the kuti, a person passes through several severe states of cleansing in about ten days, and then begins to grow as quickly again.
This Ayurvedic technique bears striking parallels to sacrificial dlksd, in which the initiate is sequestered in and reborn out of a closed initiation hut. It also reminds us of the common perspective of early Ayurveda and Samkhya, in which a fall into manifestation, triggered by a disturbance in the equilibrium of the dusas or gtnias, is reversed through a return to the "womb" of nonmanifestation. Finally, it appears to work from the same principles and assumptions as do a number of yogic techniques for the generation of inner heat (tapas) and the production of a new transcendent self.48 It is here, at the level of the replenishment and maintenance of vital fluids, and most particularly the vital fluid that is semen, that the disci plines of Ayurveda and hatha yoga intersect: the same semen that the physi cian identifies with male virility and vitality is the sine qua non of yogic practice: semen is the raw material and fuel of every psychochemical trans formation the yogin, alchemist, or tantric practitioner undergoes, transfor mations through which a new, superhuman and immortal body is "con ceived" out of the husk of the mortal, conditioned, biological body. In the royal consumption myth, we saw that King Moon lost his rasa, his semen, through sexual contact with fiery women close to the sun. In the hathayogic tradition, some of whose descriptions of the subtle body may be traced as far back as the sixth-century B.C. Chandogya Upanisad (8.6.1-2, 6), we find a similar homology, one that becomes a commonplace in later yo gic traditions. The yogin's lower abdomen (the solar plexus) is the place of
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the female, sanguineous sun, which provides the heat necessary to trig gering the yogic process, but which can also, like Time (Maitri 6.15), wholly consume the body, causing aging, disease, and death. The head, and more specifically the cranial vault, is the locus of the sun's counterpart, the cooling moon, a moon whose rasa is nothing other than semen that has been carried upwards by the yogic process and so been transmuted into nectar, amrta, which is equivalent to soma, the draft of immortality.4'' We should not conclude from these observations that an ideal world would be one in which there were no sun, fire, women, or uterine blood at all. Sacrifice, the medical year, and the rhythms of yoga are all bipolar sys tems in which two opposed principles interact, constructively and destruc tively, after the fashion of the up-and-down motion of a firing rod, piston, or camshaft, to produce a cycle characterized by alternations between fluid and fire, dry and rainy seasons, male and female offspring, and a death that leads to immortality. Indeed, the genius of each of these three systems— the sacrificial, Ayurvedic, and yogic—lies in the particular way with which each comes to terms with this bipolar fact of life. Whereas the Vedic sacrificer sought to regulate macrocosmic time as a means to ensuring cosmic and social order and the Ayurvedic physician strives to adjust microcosmic time to excesses in macrocosmic time in order to ensure bodily health, the yogin claims to be capable of imploding these two temporal orders into one another as a means to transcending both and freeing himself from time (and every other natural and cultural constraint) altogether. In this, the hathayogic synthesis appears to subscribe to the same basic working principle as the erotico-mystic practices of Hindu tantrism, i.e., that one must, if he is to transcend the human condition, work through, rather than against, the overwhelming energy of the feminine. In Iantra, sexual intercourse, the abandonment of male semen (the sacrificial offer ing) into the fiery maw of the female sexual organ, is identified as a sacri fice, the benefits of which accrue to the sacrificer. During the act, the male practitioner will therefore recite, "Om, thou the Goddess, resplendent by the oblation of dharma and non-dharma, into the fire of the self, using the mind as sacrificial ladle, along the path of the susumna, I who am engaging in harnessing the sense organs, constantly offer this oblation."'0 Techniques for palliating or channeling the effects of this bipolar dy namic are by no means restricted to these elite traditions. In fact, the same sorts of principles and techniques also ground the cycles of the ceremonial year in modern-day popular Hinduism. This is particularly evident in the
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religious calendar of the hot season in north India, which is more or less framed by the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. In rural Madhya Pradesh, nearly all of the major religious festivals of this period are con cerned with ritually "cooling down" goddesses who are considered to be malevolent, dangerous, bloodthirsty causes of disease. "Hot" diseases, with their attendant fevers arise, for example, from the anger of the smallpox goddess Sitala (whose name means "cooling," a reference to her ideal na ture, which manifests itself when she has been appeased through ritual), who is identified or associated with the "Seven Sisters," seven varieties of smallpox. The heat of these goddesses' fury is ritually distributed into wheat seedlings which, after eight days of sprouting, are carried in pots on women's heads before being immersed in water; it is also transformed into types of possession ("which comes on like a fever"), whose "seizures" are calmed by the imposition of cooling nim (margosa) leaves. These "hot" goddesses are further appeased through songs of praise and the offering of blood sacrifices." All of these treatments—elite and popular, ritual, medical, yogic, erotic, and mythological—are ultimately grounded in a body of metaphysical as sumptions that date back, in some cases, to the time of the classical Upanisads. Since at least the beginning of the common era, there have existed two more or less parallel models for depicting the bipolar interaction of fluid and fire in the microcosm and macrocosm. The first of these is the Ayurvedic model of the seasons in their interactions with the dosas. The second is a yogic model, which depicts yogic withdrawal from and return to mundane consciousness in terms of the interaction between the sun lo cated in the lower abdomen and the moon located in the cranial vault of the subtle body. This model, which respects the Ayurvedic seasonal para digms of solar captation and lunar release of vital fluids, can be effected only through the "regressive practice" (ulatd scidhana) that is the hallmark of hathayogic practice. I return to this model later in this chapter: suffice it to say here that it literally stands all other models "on their heads." There is also a third model which, dating from the earliest Upanisads, is chrono logically prior to those of both the Ayurvedic and yogic syntheses. This model is based not on the dynamics of heat convection and fluid transfer, but rather on a photic opposition between darkness and light. This is, in fact, the earliest systematic statement of the doctrine of karma and re birth—or, alternatively, liberation from rebirth—to be found in all of In dian literature. Here, in describing the fate of the soul after death, these
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sun at summer solstice
immortality devayana ivaxing moon lowering sun
Categories ofIndian Thought
full moon
death-laden existence pitryana waning moon lowering sun
sun at summer solstice
uttarayana adana agneya
new moon
daksinayana saumya visarga
optimal health
sun at winter solstice
new moon
Figure 2.1. Upanisadic model of the year
sources state that those for whom liberation is promised go into the fire of the funeral pyre and thence into the day, the bright lunar fortnight, and the sun (along the path of the gods, the devayana). Those, however, who must suffer rebirth go into the smoke of the funeral pyre and thence into the night, the dark lunar fortnight, and the moon (along the path of the ancestral fathers, the pittydna), where, after they have been "eaten" by the gods, are "rained" down to earth again, and become part of the food cycle and thereby the cycle of rebirth. 52 In this last case, the notion arises that some portion of the transmigrat ing human body is basically fluid and lunar in nature. In his commentary on this passage of the Chandogya Upanisad, Saiikara, the great eight-century A.D. synthesizer of nondualist Advaita Vedanta philosophy, coherently de lineates for the first time the relationship between the soul, the subtle body, the body of enjoyment, and the moon.
sun at winter solstice
full moon
Figure 2.2. Ayurvedic model of the year On the lunar orb, [the dead, in compensation for their accumulated merits] obtain a body of aqueous nature for the enjoyment of plea sures. T h e liquid elements employed in the funerary rites combine with other elements, and reach the heavenly regions. T h e r e , they amalgamate with the structure of the moon and become the [new] bodies of those who have performed sacrifices, etc. [during their earthly existence]. W h e n the final oblation [is] made into the funer ary fire, and when the body [is] entirely consumed, the humors that arise from it fuse with the rising smoke and envelop the [subtle body of the] sacrificer. U p o n reaching the moon, they form the primary matter of [his] new body, in the same way as straw and clay [serve to construct the ephemeral "statue" of a divinity].'' W h e n this body of enjoyment has exhausted the merits that permitted it to enjoy its temporary lunar sojourn, it "melts" to once again become a
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vehicle for the subtle body. Returning to its prior state of an amorphous vapor, it fuses with the clouds, falls to earth with the rains, enters into the sap of plants and thence into the blood and seed of the animals and humans who eat those plants. Here, it enters, as it has done an infinite number of times before, into an embryo formed of the mixture of blood and seed produced in sexual intercourse to once again become a living creature.54 The "fluid" or "thermodynamic" and lunisolar Ayurvedic model of the year together with its mirror image, the "photic" but nonetheless lunisolar Upanisadic model are presented in chart form in figures 2.1 and 2.2.1 pres ent the yogic model later in this chapter.55
3. Physical and Metaphysical Factors of Five Like the fingers on the hand, the number five in India has long been "good to think with." Even if its multiple pentads are expansions on the primal sacrificial triad—of fire (agni), oblation (rasa), and the wind (vayu) that conveyed the smoke and aroma of the offering to the gods—the Hindu cosmos has been, for at least three thousand years, a fivefold one.5'' It is the Brahmanas that, even as they continue the Vedic discourse of the triune universe, first elaborate the concept of the universe as fivefold. This they do most especially in their speculations concerning the piling of the great fire altar (agnicayana), which is composed of five layers of bricks. These five layers, the Satapatha Brabmana tells us, are the five bodily constituents of the god Prajapati, as well as the five seasons, the five directions, etc.57 The brahmanic identification of this sacrificial god with the year and with food would in turn give rise, in the early Taittiriya Upanisad (2.1), to a hierarchi cal representation of the five elements in their relationship to the universal and microcosmic man: "From this atman verily ether arose; from ether air; from air fire; from fire, water; from water, earth; from earth, herbs; from herbs, food; from food, semen; from semen, Man." This notion of the physical universe as an aggregate of the five elements is one that informs, as we will see, not only the three great metaphysical systems of ancient and classical India (Samkhya, Vedanta, and the Buddhist Dhamma), but also permeates commonsense discourse on the nature of life and death. The perennial expression pancarvam gamana, "going to the fiveness [the five elements]," is particularly disclosive of this worldview. Indians have employed this term since at least the time of the epics as a euphemism for death, the dissolution of bodily integrity.58
Categories of Indian Thought
This deconstruction of a perceived unity called "self" was a central con cern of Buddhism, for which the reality of this world was nothing more or less than an ever-changing configuration of five "heaps" or "aggregates" {khandhas). Rather than there being bodies inhabited by individual souls thirsting for reintegration into a universal soul, as the Upanisads taught, the Buddha showed existence to be nothing other than a series of evanes cent recombinations of appearances, sensations, conceptions, mental for mations, and consciousness. The extinction (nirvana) of suffering con sisted in dissociating the five aggregates from any notion of "self," for this was what trapped one in existence. Ultimately, however, the Buddha was working from the same basic problematic as were proto-Samkhyan and proto-Vedantic thought in the early Upanisads. Buddhism denied the reality of self in order to emphasize an ethical attitude towards an impermanent world characterized by suffer ing born of ignorance. Samkhya affirmed the existence of a plurality of selves and the reality of the world for so long as spirit (purusa) remained confused with nature or original materiality (prakrti). Vedanta asserted the identity of the individual soul (atman, jivatman) with the universal soul (brahman, paramatman) while denying the reality of the phenomenal world.59 Yet underlying these divergent philosophies, there remained a common ground that no subtlety of argumentation could efface. This was the concrete experience of the human body—and, as we shall see, most particularly the very concrete yogic experience of the body—in its relation to the external world.''" Thus, despite the important points of divergence between the metaphysics of these three schools, the identity of microcosm and macrocosm—already evoked in Brahmanic speculations on the identi fication of the fire altar with the body of the cosmic man (Purusa-Prajapati) and the universe—was constantly undermining the philosophical distinc tions drawn between them. In the end, "wet" experience would win out over "dry" philosophical speculation.''1 In the early Upanisads, the cosmogonic metaphysics that was generated to link the individual to the universe and its absolute source was nothing other than a reverse account of the stages by which the yogin withdraws from the external world to realize the absolute within.''2 For the monistic Vedantins, this was a process of resorption that was implied in the primal cosmic emanation: yoga was a remounting of those stages through which absolute poured itself out to form our manifold, manifest universe. This universe was a continuum, a single reverberation, out of the primal essence that was brahman, down into subtle (suksma) and gross (sthula) forms of life
Chapter Tivo
and matter. All was interconnected, both structurally and materially; and because all being contained a trace of the absolute brahman (in the form of the individual soul, the atman) within, all was potentially, and thereby virtually, one with the universal essence. Yogic practice, meditation and insight (jnana) were the means to realizing, in the gnoseological sense of the word, this inner potential. Although monist, Vedanta constructed its model of an emanated uni verse upon a Samkhyan prototype, which was dualist. According to Samkhya, the manifold universe in all its parts was essentially a mistake. That is, Spirit (Purusa), deluded (for reasons that are never clearly explained) into identifying itself with a rather scatterbrained Mother Nature (Prakrti), moves her to undergo internal modifications that serially generate lower and lower strata of being. Rather than a process of emanation, this is one of differentiation: in spite of its temporary loss of discrimination, Purusa is wholly spirit and therefore not of the same stuff as Prakrti or the lower differentiates with which he identifies himself. Purusa, spirit, and Prakrti, the world, are proximate, though never in actual contact. Thus the various levels of metaphysical reality remain disconnected materially, with their structural sequentiality being the result of Purusa's "fall" into (identifying itself with these ever-descending mutations of) Prakrti.''' In spite of the fundamental differences between them, the basic model employed by these two metaphysical systems is one and the same. The shape of reality is composed of five sets of five categories, headed by the "preternatural" pentad of purusa, prakrti, bnddhi (intellect), ahamkara (ego), and mafias (mind). Below this pentad are four parallel pentads, which inter act with and interpenetrate one another. These are the five buddblndriyas (sense-capacities: hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, smelling); the five karmendriyas (action-capacities: speaking, grasping, walking, excreting, gen erating), the five tanmatras (subtle elements: sound, touch, form, taste, smell) and the five mahabhutas (gross elements: ether, air, fire, water, earth)/' 4 It is at the level of the twenty lower tattvas that another constant feature of the Indian worldview emerges. This is the pattern of corre sponding hierarchies that proliferates throughout a wide variety of differ ent yet parallel disciplines. In the case of the Samkhyan categories, there is a point-for-point correspondence between the members of each level of each of the four parallel groups. Thus, the buddhtndriya of hearing corre sponds to the karmendriya of speaking, the tanmatra of sound, and the mahabhuta of ether, and so on, down to the correspondence between olfactory sensing, procreation, odor, and earth.65 The Samkhyan system thus com-
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prised twenty-five metaphysical categories, five hierarchical series of five. This system was taken as given by Vedantic thought in its description of emanated (as opposed to differentiated) reality and, as I now show, by tantrie Buddhism and Hinduism in their maps of a theistic universe, in which the impersonal Purusa or brdh?nan was replaced by personalized Buddhas, or by forms of Siva and the Goddess. In the Hindu case, the metaphysical categories or cosmic principles (tatftv/s) of Samkhya were deified, early on, in the form of the twenty-five faces of Mahasadasiva.66 Because its was an "exploded" metaphysics that denied any primal essence, absolute or universal, Buddhism resisted the Samkhyan model for several centuries; but here too, yogic experience eventually pre vailed. Already in Asvaghosa's (A.D. 80) theory of "suchness" (tathata), the unbridgeable gap that the Buddha taught between existence (samsdra) and its cessation (nirvana) was beginning to yield to the irresistible force of yogic experience. A few centuries later, it would collapse completely with the Mahayana notion that the Dharmakaya—the "Buddha body" com posed of the body of the Buddha's teachings—was an absolute or universal soul, a Buddhist equivalent of the Vedantin's brahman, with which the prac titioner entered into mystic union.67 Once the inviolate gap between samsara and nirvana had been breached, the familiar corresponding hierarchies of the Indian cosmos came rushing in through the back door, as it were. Thus, while logicians like Santideva and Dirinaga were devising hair splitting arguments by which to interpret the world as a void entity,68 Bud dhist tantrikas were deifying and hypostasizing the Buddha into five emanated Buddhas or Tathagatas: Amitabha, Vairocana, Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, and Aksobhya.69 These five primal Buddhas were subse quently equated with the five elements,70 the basic concept being that cos mic expansion, the multiplication of the absolute into fundamental forces, could be represented by lineages of gods just as easily as by metaphysical categories. Thus, each of the five primal Buddhas presided over five lin eages of five bodhisattvas which, added to the transcendent Dharmakaya, generated a total of twenty-five divine beings, the same as the number of Samkhyan categories. Thus we read in the Jnanasiddhi: "Since they have the nature of the five Buddhas, the five constituents of the human personal ity are called jinas (conquerers): and the five dhatus (elements) correspond to the Buddha's s'aktis .. . Therefore our body is a Buddha body."71 This complete turnabout, effected before the seventh century, gave rise to Buddhist tantra. Hindu tantrism as well came to generate clan or family lineages (kulas) of divinities that were so many deifications of the Sam-
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khyan categories, adding, as had the Buddhists, transcendent categories (totaling as many as thirty-seven in the Trika Kaula synthesis) to under score the superiority of its pantheon of supreme deities. In the 1 tindu case, the supreme god Siva and his consort Sakti (or the Goddess by one of her many other names) are transparent appropriations, but now with a sexual reinterpretation, of the Samkhyan pair of Purusa and Prakrti. These tantric reworkings of the Samkhyan categories would have a myr iad of practical applications in the fields oihathayoga and alchemy, both of which stressed the importance of the five elements. In the former system, the five lower cakras were identified with the five elements, while in al chemy, mercury, the semen of Siva, was viewed as incorporating the five elements in itself. I discuss these applications in detail in later chapters.
4. T h e Lunar Cipher of Sixteen in Veda, Yoga, and Tantra In the royal consumption origin myth related above, the moon was revived and replenished in its bright fortnight through the offering of a soma sacri fice. Soma is the fluid essence of the moon, which, in the sacrificial context, must be bought. With what does King Moon buy back his vital fluids? With a red cow, whose name, rohini, is the same as that of the starry woman who was the original cause of his woes.72 The Brahmanas offer another explanation for the moon's ability to wax anew, indeed, for its immortality. Of the moon's sixteen digits, the last is said to descend to earth to dwell in animals and plants: "Now this King Soma, the food of the gods, is none other than the moon. When he is not seen that night either in the east or west, then he visits this world; and here he enters into the waters and the plants. And since during that night he dwells (vasati) [here] at home (amd), that is called the new moon (amavasya)? "Then, on the night of the new moon, entering by means of its sixteenth digit (kala) into all that is pos sessed of breath, it [the moon] is reborn in the morning."71 What is this sixteenth, immortal digit of the moon? Clearly, it is to be identified with the immortal soul, which persists through an infinite series of rebirths and redeaths. Why the number sixteen? In all likelihood, the intimate association of this figure with the moon is the result of the Indian penchant for "rounding up" from a given set of aggregates to express the notion of perfect wholeness. In this case, the fifteen observable nights of a lunar fortnight are taken as fifteen separate units, to which is added an additional unit (the whole lunar fortnight as the sum of its parts). Here,
»7 Categories of Indian Thought
the fifteen nights are also taken to be the spokes of a wheel, with its felly, the sixteenth, identified with the dtman. This transcendent sixteenth unit, the amrta-kald, "fills out," renders perfect, the fifteen units of the mundane lunar fortnight.74 Let us dwell for a moment upon the Hindu concept of the kala, the lunar digit, and most especially on the sixteenth, immortal digit (amrta-kald) of the moon as it applies to the yogic body. In Ayurvedic parlance, the term kala is used as a synonym for dhdtu7S or for the invisible supports (dhdras) of or divisions between each of the seven dbatus.7r' This usage probably originates from the original concept of sac rificial initiation (dlksd) in the Vedic tradition. Here, when the sacrificer's body is made anew, the embryo of his sacrificial body is symbolically gen erated by adding layer upon layer of bodily constituent: semen, blood, caul, placenta, etc.77 Indeed, the original sacrificial body—that of PurusaPrajapati who is reconstructed time and again in brahmanic speculation— is said to be divided into sixteen kalds, which are each of his eight dhdtus, taken twice.78 An Upanisadic identification of Prajapati's body with the moon would appear to reinforce this interpretation. Indeed, sixteen is also a key figure in Indian reckonings of a woman's menstrual cycle. In the words of the Ydjnavalkya Smrti, "sixteen nights are the season of a woman .. . from the appearance of menses, sixteen nights is for a woman the sea son, i.e. the time for the conception of the fetus." As with the moon, which fills out through an addition of layers (digits), so with the (re)constitution of sacrificial and embryonic bodies, as well as the ovum.79 Elsewhere, in Saiva Siddhanta ritual, the body parts of God, which the devotee superim poses upon his own body through the recitation of mantras, are called kalds.*0 A similar perspective appears to underlie a popular ritual observance found throughout modern north India: the "sixteen Mondays vow," during which one fasts and offers coarse wheat-flour cakes to Siva on sixteen suc cessive Mondays. As in English, Monday means "moon-day" (soma-vdra) in the modern Indo-Aryan languages; this ritual observance may be inter preted as a practice by which to fill out the moon—through the intermedi ary of Siva, the god whose semen is identified with soma—in successive phases, until it is sixteen kalds full.81 The original use of the term kala is found in the Rg Veda, where it was used to signify "any single portion of a whole, especially a sixteenth part."*2 It was somewhat later that the term came to be applied to each of the six teen digits of the moon, but by that time its meaning had already expanded to encompass a wide array of other sets of sixteen.83 The standard number of priestly specialists (excluding the yajamana) in a brahmanic soma sacrifice
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Chapter Two was sixteen;1" already in the Brahmanas, the number sixteen was identified as the numerical attribute of brahman, the absolute.85 When the identifi cation of the universal macrocosm, ruled by brahman, and the corporeal microcosm, ruled by atman, was made, the sixteen attributes of brahman translated into the aggregate of the five breaths, the five organs of action (karmendriyas), the five organs of sensation (jnanendriyas) and the mind,"6 or into the sixteen components of the living being of which only onesixteenth is unmanifest (avyakta) and transmigrates.87 Nowhere, however, does the notion of wholeness and perfection trans late more fully, on both microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, than in the dynamics of the waxing and waning of the moon, in the increase and dimi nution of lunar digits, the kalas. The moon fills out with each lunar month to become brimful of this nectar, which it pours into the world in the form of vivifying rain, the fluid source of every creature's vitality.88 In this con text the invisible sixteenth kala, that digit that makes the moon fully whole, takes on its fullness of meaning as the amna-kala, the "digit of immor tality." The increase and diminution of the moon, both in its lunar fortnights and in its relationship to the sun in the system of the solar and lunar semes ters of the year, is intimately tied into yogic theory and practice relative to the subtle body. This is a bipolar body that is divided into two halves at the level of the navel. Of these, the lower half is associated with femininity, with male semen that is "prey" to blood and to the fire of the sun; and the upper with masculinity, with semen that has been refined into nectar identified with the moon. The lower half is further identified with mun dane existence, with the dispersal of the individual's life into a myriad of worldly concerns paralleled by the dispersal, in his lower body, of his seed: this is pravrtti, extroversion. The upper half, on the contrary, is identified with supermundane consciousness, with the reintegration of all that is nor mally dispersed in mundane existence: this is nivrtti, introversion. In this system, human life itself is seen as dependent upon the main tenance of the immortal digit of lunar nectar. Even at such times as an individual is not practicing yoga, he remains alive by virtue of the sixteenth digit of nectar that endures in the cranial vault, identified as the abode of brahman or Siva (both of whom are identified with the number sixteen) in the subtle body: this is the microcosmic homologue of the single immortal lunar digit that dwells in the world on new-moon nights.8'' The realization of supernatural powers and bodily immortality requires that that same
19 Categories of Indian Thought moon in the cranial vault be replenished to its fullness and shine with all of its sixteen digits. It is, however, impossible for these sixteen digits to be regenerated without the "seed" that is the immortal digit, also known, in yogic parlance, as the nivrtti kala, the digit of yogic introversion."0 The subtle body is in fact composed of two sets of sixteen digits, the one solar and fiery and the other lunar and fluid. In the body of a nonpractitioner, it is the former set that holds sway: the sun or fire of time in the lower abdomen burns with all of its twelve digits'" and thus consumes, ages the body. In addition to these twelve solar digits, there are also said to be four fiery digits in the body.92 These are located in the medial channel of the subtle body, the susrumna nadi or brahmamarga (the "path of brahman"), which runs up the spinal column from the lower abdomen to the cranial vault. Yoga, and most especially hatha yoga, involves forcefully controlling, even reversing the body's natural tendencies through the combined tech niques of breath control, fixed postures, and meditation. What these tech niques aim to reverse is the aging process, which yogic traditions identify with the predominance in the body of the solar and fiery digits. This yogic battery of techniques for reversing the course of nature and time is vari ously called ulata sadhana (regressive practice), kaya kalpa (bodily reinte gration), and paravrtti (retroversion). Yogic practice reduces the influence of the sixteen digits of the lower body while simultaneously increasing that of the sixteen lunar digits of the moon located in the cranial vault. This it does, in practical terms, by raising the yogin's semen from his lower ab domen along the length of the medial channel until it fills out the moon in his head. As it rises, this same semen is gradually transformed into amrta, the stuff of the macrocosmic moon, the divine nectar of immortality which pours itself into the world in the form of vivifying rain. The way in which this transformation occurs lies at the heart of hathayogic theory and practice. Hatha yoga is the forceful channeling and control of the vital breaths (pranas) and of the thermal energy (tapas, yogagni) of the subtle body. Yogic transformation begins when the yogin concentrates all of his vital breaths at the base of his medial channel, in the region of the subtle sun that is burning with all of its twelve digits. This concentration of breaths opens the medial channel, the mouth of which had theretofore remained closed, at which point the process of yogic reversal truly begins. T hrough heroic efforts of mental concentration and physical exertion, the yogin now initiates a controlled raising of his seed, the heat of his solar fires, and his breath along the medial channel.93 At each stage of this pro-
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July 14 full sun mundane consciousness
o
sun at summer solstice
new moon
- solar pingala in right side of body uttarayana adana agneya
lunar ida in left side of body
o
January 14 full moon samadhi Figure 2.3. Yogic model of the year
cess, the fire of the sun in his abdomen decreases incrementally: what the yogin is in fact doing is burning up the fire of death (kaldgni) with the immortalizing fire of yoga {kalagiiintdra).9* In its simplest terms, this channeling of vital fluid, breath, and heat en ergy is a six-stage process. These six stages are described as the piercing (bheda) by these vital elements of six energy centers or circles of transfor mation called the cakras. T h e six cakras™ strung along the length of the spinal column in the subtle body, are, in order, the muladhdra (at the level of the anus), svadhisthana (at the level of the genitals), manipura (navel), anahata (heart), visuddhi (throat), and ajna (between the eyebrows). T h e prodigious heat generated with the piercing of each cakra, coupled with the fact that upward movement is here equated with absorption, allows for a homologization of each circle of transformation with a crema tion ground, the place of the final sacrifice, and a pralaya, a cosmic dissolu-
daksinayana saumya visarga
optimal health
sun at winter solstice
full moon
Figure 2.4. Ayurvedic model of the year tion." 6 This heat, concentrated within the infinitesimal space of the medial channel, effects the gradual transformation of "raw" semen into "cooked" and even perfected nectar, amna; it is this nectar that gradually fills out the moon in the cranial vault such that, at the conclusion of this process, the lunar orb, now brimming with nectar, is possessed of its full complement of sixteen digits. T h e brimming downturned moon in the cranial vault is also identified as a thousand-petaled lotus: this is the so-called "seventh" cakra, the sahasrara. T h i s transformation of semen into nectar wholly transforms the body, rendering it immortal. Because the yogin reverses all natural tendencies (inertia, beingtowards-death, extroversion) through his practice, he quite literally re verses the flow of time; because his is a "regressive practice," it stands the conventional models of the temporal cycles on their heads. Here, we il lustrate with a chart these reversals—between the interplay of the macro-
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cosmic sun and moon in the visarga and adana semesters of the Ayurvedic year on the one hand and the cyclic interplay of lunar and solar kalas in the subde body of hathayoga on the other (figs. 2.3 and 2.4). The application of the hathayogic model—of a full, male, immortaliz ing moon in the upper body and a blazing, female, deadly sun in the lower body—becomes greatly expanded in the Puranic reckoning of the great cosmic time cycles, the kalpas or eons. Here, a divine, cosmic yogin trig gers the creation or dissolution of the universe through his cycles of yogic withdrawal from (which corresponds to cosmic dissolution) and return to (which corresponds to cosmic emission) mundane consciousness.''7 Here as well, the phases into which eons are divided, i.e., of nonmanifestation and manifestation, are termed niskala and sakala, with kalas and without kalas, respectively.98
Following their supreme fusion in hatha yoga, the lunar digits and the number sixteen seem to pursue separate careers in later I lindu traditions. On the one hand, the number sixteen becomes expanded, through an in flationary tendency quite endemic to Hinduism, into eighteen. On the other, kala becomes a tantric metaphysical category more or less divorced from its prior associations with the waxing and waning moon. It is espe cially in the context of the phonematic emanation of the tantric universe, in which the self-manifestation of the absolute is effected through the garland of the fifty-one ordered phonemes (vania-mala) of the Sanskrit alphabet—which arc at once acoustic matrices and mother goddesses (?>ratrkas)un—that the term kala is most broadly employed in nondualist tantra. Here, through the "particularizing energy" of the kala, the unmanifest acoustic nature of the absolute, called nada, "resonance," becomes condensed into the differentiated phonemes of manifest speech.IW It is here that tantrism coopts, in its own way, the notion of the kalas as lunar digits: the fifteen vocalic phonemes of the Sanskrit language, together with a nasalization called the bindu, are identified with the first fifteen digits of the moon. The sixteenth kala, the invisible and immortal digit that is pres ent in all that flows from it, becomes the turning point between vowels and consonants in the order of the emanated phonemes: this is the visarga, the surd aspirate often found at the end of Sanskrit words. As such, the six teenth phonemic kala, the visarga is pictured as the point of intersection or union between utterance and meaning, between language and event, signifiant and signifie.10' These sixteen phonemic kalas, while identified with Siva, are only enlivened through his interaction with his manifest as pect, the goddess Sakti."14 As such, this group of sixteen may also be identi fied as sixteen divine mothers.105
In fact, time {kala) is always lurking in the background of any discussion of the kalas, because to each kala there corresponds a lunar day (tithi):m with each passing kala, another day goes by. Normally, man is the victim of this relentless passing of the kalas, the march of time, which, just as it diminishes the moon in its waning fortnight, wears down the human body and brings man a day closer to his death. Only the yogin, through his re gressive practice, can effect a return to a primordial plenitude, thereby en abling himself to stave off and even reverse and gain back "lost time." So it is that as he enters deeper and deeper into his practice, the yogin turns back the hands of time, moving backwards through his earlier life and prior existences and thereby annulling the karma, the effects of the accumulated fruits of past acts, attached to them. Still deeper into his yogic trance, when he has remounted the emanated order of creation back to its very source— a source prior to sameness and difference, life and death, male and female, ego and other—he realizes a state of being that is unconditioned even by Time itself. The yogin then becomes a kala-vancaka, a "tricker" or "skewer" of Time,10" and many are the myths of Siddhas who harrow hell and give Death a thrashing for his having presumed to hold sway over one of their fold. For the Indian yogin, following the example of the yogic god whose withdrawal from and return to mundane consciousness synchronize the arising and passing away of the cosmic ages, time need not merely move forward: there are also the options of fast forward and reverse. It is in this way that the yogin, even though he employs the same bipolar system for time reckoning as do all other Indians, relates to time in his own unique way. Rather than being a slave to time, he is its master. He becomes a "sec ond Siva," the master of a universe he knows to be of his own making.
In addition to its extended applications of the full complement of lunar digits in its theory and practice, tantrism also expands on the number of digits in the full moon, raising it to eighteen. This is a process that was already under way prior to the time of the tantras themselves. The numeri cal attribute of the absolute brahman is raised, in the Mahabharata, from sixteen to eighteen.106 Likewise, in the writings of the Mahayana philoso pher Asahga, as well as of certain Nath Siddhas, the number of inner 'voids" (sunyas) alternates between sixteen and eighteen.107 Finally, in Hindu tantra, the number of kalas is raised from sixteen to eighteen, to accomodate for additional metaphysical categories.'08 There is.yet another important sphere of Hindu life in which the num ber sixteen plays an important role. These are the samskaras, the Hindu
<M
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God returns to mundane consciousness srslj a cosmic day begins
July 14 full sun mundane consciousness
solar pihgala in right side of body
cosmic night
lunar ida in left side of body
God in samadhi pralaya a cosmic night begins Figure 2.5. Yogic model of the cosmic year (Kalpa)
"sacraments" or "life-cycle rites," which, extending from conception to cremation, respect the numerical determinism of the number sixteen. 109 Over the millennia, this term has come to take on a wide range of applica tions, one of which is an alchemical one: the series of 16 + 2 processes which lead to the transformation of mercury, the "lunar" semen of Siva, into a transmuting agent, are called the samskaras.u" T h e alchemical samskaras moreover retain a number of the "lunar" elements intrinsic to the number sixteen. T h u s , the alchemical Bhutiprakarana, in a clear reference to the myth of the origin of royal consumption, states that the mineral rasas arose from the union of Bhairava and Rohinl, the erstwhile spouse of King Moon. T h e same source goes on to state that it is only under a waxing or full moon that alchemical operations leading to bodily rejuvenation will succeed." 1 W e will return to a detailed discussion of the alchemical samskaras in chapter nine.
January 14 full moon samadhi Figure 2.6. Yogic model of the year
5. Yogic and C o s m i c Cycles In hatha yoga, the principal motor behind the transformations of mundane semen into divine nectar of immortality—and of mundane mind (manas) to a state beyond mind (unmana)—is a pneumatic one. It is wind, the dy namic element in the ancient Vedic triad, which here, taking the form of controlled breathing, plays a crucial transformative role in the hathayogic system. W h e n the breath is stable, mind and semen are stabilized; but more important, when through breath control (pranayama) the base of the m e dial channel is opened, that same breath causes the reversal of mundane polarities. Rather than descending, semen, energy, and mind are now forced upwards into the cranial vault, effecting total yogic integration (samadhi), a reversal of the flow of time, immortality and transcendence over the entire created universe.
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Chapter Two
The importance of yogic pranayama is underscored in Indian systems of time reckoning, especially as concerns two extreme units of measurement. It is here that we find not a mere dilation of number—as has been the case with two, three, five, and sixteen—but a veritable explosion thereof, with numerical progressions raising these figures to powers of fourteen or fac tors of trillions. Yet, as always, the same phenomena, of bipolarity and homology, lie at the root of such mathematical exultation. We have already outlined the correspondences between the semesters of the solar year and the fortnights of the lunar month. Moving down the scale from these temporal units, we find that each of the days in a lunar month is divided into bright (day) and dark (night) halves and so on until one arrives at the basic "bipolar time unit" of human, or more particularly yogic, respiration. This is the matra ("measure")," : or the elapsed time of a yogic inhalation (homologized with the day, the bright lunar fortnight, and the northern path) and exhalation (homologized with night, the dark lunar fortnight, and the southern path). Ninety-six matras constitute one ghata; sixty ghatas one day and night; thirty days one month (a day of the ancestors); twelve months one year (a day of the gods); 12 X 360 X 1000 years a mabayuga (a day of the god Brahma); and one thousand mahayugas a kalpa (a day of the cosmic yogin Visnu). According to nearly every yogic and tantric tradition, Siva is an even greater yogin than Visnu. As such, a kalpa of Visnu is but a single matra, a divine inbreath and an outbreath for Siva—the proof of this being the garlands of skulls, of Brahmas and Visnus of innumerable past creations that he wears around his neck. In the words of the twelfth-century Vlrasaiva poet Basavanna, When the ghosts read the writing on the skulls Siva wears around his neck, they know, "This one is Brahma, this one is Visnu, this one is Indra, this is Death," as they play happily with them, Siva smiles, he laughs, our god." 3 In the monistic or pneumatic perspective of the yoga-based Indian gnoseologies, it is ultimately breath, breathing in and breathing out, that unites the microcosm to the macrocosm (indeed, atman can be translated as "spirit" or "breath, re-spir-ation")." 4 The lunar months, solar years, etc. are so many temporal mesocosms, so many levels at which the human be comes joined to the absolute, through the bipolar dynamic of breathing in
47
Categories of Indian Thought
and breathing out. It is for this reason in particular that breath control plays such a paramount role in the entire yogic enterprise. With these remarks, I present two final charts which compare the basic bipolar model of yogic withdrawal and return on the one hand and the kalpic cycle of divine withdrawal (dissolution, pralaya) and return (emis sion, srsti) on the other (figs. 2.5 and 2.6). v
49
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
THREE
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
path . . . The monk saw the huge rock and the upside-down monas tery and realized that the worst had happened. "Alas, Lord King," he exclaimed, " . . . I fear that my boys have eaten the roasted alchemist, and unless they are quickly apprehended they will rebel against you." b. The seventh-century Indian author and playwright Banabhatta pro vides the earliest literary account we have of an Indian tantrika in the comic description he gives of a south Indian (Dravida) ascetic who superintended a temple of the goddess Candika on the road to Ujjain:2
i. Six Alchemical Accounts a. The Zawgyis or Weikzas, the alchemist-monks of Burma whose eso teric alchemical tradition dates from the fifth century A.D., are indebted at least in part to India for their knowledge of the mercurials with which they are expert in "pickling" their bodies. A Burmese legend set in the time of the eleventh-century king Anawrahta also betrays an Indian connection:1 [A monk, having saved two boys from drowning] discovered that they were . . . Indians by race. He took them to his monastery and, nam ing them Byat-wi and Byat-ta, he brought them up as his pupils. Years passed and the boys became fully grown young men. One day the monk found on the hill-side the body of an alchemist who had died during the final stages of his experiments, and he instructed his pupils to carry it to the monastery and roast it. After the body had been roasted, the monk said, "Look here, pupils, the roasted flesh of the alchemist is to be eaten only by the Great King of Thaton, so that he will become a mighty man of endeavour and protect our country from its enemies. So I must go to the city to invite the King to din ner" . . . In the darkness, the roasted body of the alchemist shone like gold, and it gave out such a sweet flavour that the two youths yearned to taste the strange flesh . .. "Let us just take a bite each," and they cut off a tiny part of the roasted body and ate it, but as the flesh tasted so good they greedily went on eating until the whole body was finished . . . The elder brother [said] ". . . let us enjoy ourselves." Then, feeling gay and strong, he lifted the monastery from its foun dations and turned it upside down. "Is that all you can do?" mocked the younger brother, and he lifted a huge rock and placed it on the
4«
He had a tumor growing on his forehead that was blackened by con stantly falling at the feet of the mother Goddess . . . and was blind in one eye from a batch of invisibility salve [siddhanjana] given him by a quack . . . He had brought a premature fever on himself with an improperly prepared mercurial elixir [rasayana] used as a vermifuge . . . He had a collection of palm-leaf manuscripts containing material on conjuring, tantra, and mantra, which were written in letters of smoky-red lacquer. He had written the doctrine of Mahakala as such had been taught to him by an old Maha-pasupata. He was afflicted with the condition of babbling about buried treasure and had become very windy on the subject of transmutational alchemy [dhatuvada].. . He had increased his grasp on the mantra-sadhana for becoming in visible, and knew thousands of wonderful stories about Sriparvata. c. Alberuni, the Muslim savant who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni in his conquest of western India between A.D. 998 and 1030, relates a num ber of Indian alchemical legends, including the following:' In the city of Dhara,4 the capital of Malava, which is in our days ruled by Bhojadeva [1000-55], there lies in the door of the Government house an oblong piece of pure silver, in which the outlines of the limbs of a man are visible. Its origin is accounted for by the following story:—Once in olden times a man went to a king of theirs, bringing him a Rasayana, the use of which would make him immortal, victori ous, invincible, and capable of doing everything he desired. He asked the king to come alone to the place of their meeting, and the king gave orders to keep in readiness all the man required. The man began to boil the oil for several days, until at last it ac quired consistency. Then he spoke to the king: "Spring into it and I shall finish the process." But the king, terrified at what he saw, had
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not the courage to dive into it. The man, on perceiving his coward ice, spoke to him: "If you have not sufficient courage, and will not do it for yourself, will you allow me myself to do it?" Whereupon the king answered, "Do as you like." Now he produced several packets of drugs, and instructed him that when such and such symptoms should appear, he should throw upon him this or that packet. Then the man stepped forward to the cauldron and threw himself into it, and at once he was dissolved and reduced into pulp. Now the king pro ceeded according to his instruction, but when he had nearly finished the process, and there remained only one packet that was not yet thrown into the mass, he began to be anxious, and to think what might happen to his realm, in case the man should return to life as an immortal, victorious, invincible person, as has above been mentioned. And so he thought it preferable not to throw the last packet into the mass. The consequence was that the caldron became cold, and the dissolved man became consolidated in the shape of the said piece of silver.
There are others quite different from these [other Hindu sectarian groups]; strange fellows these, almost constantly travelling hither and thither; these are people who scoff at everything, and whom nothing troubles. They are people with secrets who, it is said, even know how to make gold and to prepare mercury so admirably that one or two grains taken every morning restore the body to perfect health and so fortify the stomach that it digests very well, such that it is nearly impossible for them to eat their fill.
d. In the account he gives of his travels in India in the last years of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo offers the following description of a group of persons he encountered on the Malabar Coast of India:5 Here these Braaman live more than any other people in the world. . . . Moreover they have among them regulars and orders of monks . . . who are called ciugi [Yogis, Jogis] who certainly live more than all the others in the world, for they commonly live from 150 to 200 years . . . And again I tell you that these ciugi who live so long . . . eat also what I shall explain . . . I tell you that they take quicksilver and sulphur and mix them together with water and make a drink out of them; and they drink it and say it increases their life . . . They do it twice on the week, and sometimes twice each month . . . and without mistake those who live so long use this drink of sulphur and quick silver. e. At the close of the seventeenth century, the French traveler Francois Bernier, a Catholic man of letters, gives a more nuanced account of the religious practices he observed in Mogul India. While he either ridicules or shows disgust or contempt for nearly all that he sees of Hindu religious life, one group, whom he calls, as had Marco Polo, Yogis, seems to com mand his respect:6
f. Two hundred years after Bernier, John Campbell Oman, a relatively open-minded 7 subject of the British Empire—for whom, however, western superiority and the propriety, even the necessity of the colonial and mis sionary enterprise were never open to question—gives a report of an Indian alchemist that is less flattering than those of his two western prede cessors:8 A learned Sikh told me of an . . . unfruitful experience he had with a gold-making Nirmali sadhu. This man made friends with the Sikh, and insinuated himself into his confidence. He . . . revealed, under the seal of secret, that he was acquainted with the occult art of transmuting metals. The Sikh . . . was much excited at finding that his new friend was a potent alchemist.. . The transmuter of metals seemed to live very well, yet occasionally borrowed money, showing special favour to the Sikh in this matter . .. One day the sadhu showed the Sikh a common bronze . . . coin, and then in his presence put it into a small furnace along with various leaves and roots he had collected. After an hour or so he produced from his crucible a golden fac-simile of the [coin]. The Sikh, not to be taken in even by his dear friend, asked to be allowed to have it tested by a goldsmith. Permis sion was given and acted upon, with the result that the experts in the bazaar pronounced it gold of the purest quality. The Sikh was now agog to learn the important secret of gold-making, and many were the rupees he willingly lent the sadhu, in the hope that he would ac cept him as a pupil. But the saintly man of science suddenly and un expectedly decamped. "Alas," said the Sikh after he had narrated these circumstances to me, "I lost more than sixty rupees through that imposter. I have since learned how he fooled me, but never a Nirmali sadhu has, since those days, had so much as a drop of water from my hand!"
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z. Religious Alchemy in India: Three Typologies
and rasa sastra, we will have the occasion to refer to a wide array of medical and pharmacological sources throughout this study. I have chosen the term magical alchemy to designate the earliest phase of religious alchemy for a simple reason: it is, for all intents and purposes, the stuff of fairy tales. Transmutation and bodily immortality are its stated goals, but the means to these ends are a matter of serendipity throughout this period. Its watchword is the term rasa-rasayana—a mercurial elixir cum philosopher's stone and one of the eight magical siddhis of Mahayana Buddhism,14 as well as medieval Hinduism15 and Jainism16—but this is a power or object to be won or wrested from gods, demigods, or demons rather than produced in the laboratory. While most of the alchemical lore of this period is found in Buddhist sources, the secular literature of the time (of which Bana's Kadambari is a prime example) also contains its share of accounts of Hindu alchemical heroes and buffoons. Indeed, the Gupta age was a period of great syncretism between Hinduism and Buddhism. Both the Burmese folktale and Bana's account also square with a number of other features of the alchemy of this period, not the least salient of which is that it rarely seems to work. Also, as Bana's account intimates, alchemy appears to be a mainly south Indian phenomenon in this period, as evi denced in frequent mentions of Srisailam-Sriparvata in period sources. Since India's original fascination with alchemy most probably arose out of early contacts with a China (India was exporting Buddhism to China in this period) whose Taoist speculative alchemical tradition had been devel oping since the second century A.D., one might conclude that such tradi tions reached south India via a maritime route.17
The six accounts presented here epitomize the historical evolution and de volution of religious alchemy in India. The Burmese folktale and Banabhatta's seventh-century caricature typify magical alchemy, which held the field from the second to the tenth century A.D. Al-Biruni's eleventhcentury account is a legendary portrayal of an operation proper to tantric alchemy, which enjoyed its golden age from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Marco Polo's and Francois Bernier's descriptions of Yogis docu ment the tradition of Siddha alchemy, which thrived from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. The decline of Siddha alchemy, already hinted at in the Aurangzebian^rwztfw with which this book opened, is chronicled in Oman's nineteenth-century account. We may begin to generate a working definition of religious alchemy bydistinguishing it from what it is not. Throughout the three phases I have evoked, religious alchemy interacted with, and was at times even indistin guishable from, other theoretical and applied sciences in which mercurial and mineral-based preparations played a central role. The most important of these (though perhaps not the earliest)9 was Ayurveda, whose two foundational works, the Caraka Samhita (ca. A.D. IOO)10 and the Susruta Samhita (ca. fourth century A.D.),11 contain references to external, therapeutic uses of mercury. Following these, the sixth- to seventh-century A.D. Astanga Samgraha of Vagbhatta the Elder contains the earliest Indian reference to the internal use of mercury for therapeutic ends.12 In spite of the fact, however, that Ayurvedic uses of mercury predate those of the tantric and Siddha alchemical traditions that will concern us, and although Ayurveda later incorporated many of the technical discover ies made by tantric alchemy (especially following the decline of the latter in the fourteenth century), its use of mercurial and mineral-based prepara tions falls, for the most part, outside the purview of this study. The reason for this is that the goals of the Ayurvedic "mercurial science" (rasa s'astra)— i.e., mineral-based pharmacy—are essentially therapeutic (rogavada),n whereas the hallmark of religious alchemy is its dual emphasis on transmutational (lohavada) alchemy and elixir (dehavdda) alchemy, on the bodily transformation of the living practitioner into a perfected immortal, a Sid dha, Vidyadhara, or a "second Siva." The Ayurvedic tradition has no such pretensions. The Ayurvedic physician's goal is to heal the man and not to create a superman. Because, however, a vast wealth of religious alchemical doctrine has remained fossilized as it were within the canons of Ayurveda
While Bana's seventh-century description of the hydrargyriasic Dravida ascetic also contains India's earliest literary reference to tantric manu scripts, it would not be until some three centuries later that tantric alchemy, as I define it, actually emerged. Here, Alberuni's eleventh-century legend proves to be nothing other than the narrativization of an actual alchemical operation, as described in the final verses of the Rasdrnava (RA).1" Albe runi's legend is entirely faithful to the tantric spirit of the RA and other texts of this period. The goal of tantric alchemy is bodily immortality, invincibility, and transcendence of the human condition. The tantric al chemist, like most of his brother tantrikas, seeks through his practice to render himself godlike, a second Siva. The means to this end also distinguishes tantric alchemy from magical alchemy as well as from the therapeutic uses of mercurials proper to the Ayurvedic tradition. In the procedure of which Alberuni's text is a mytho-
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logization, the alchemist is instructed to first "test out" his mercury on metals before throwing himself into his alchemical cauldron. Only mer cury that has proven itself capable of transmuting ten million times its mass of base metals into gold will suffice here." This dual focus is indeed the watchword of the tantric alchemical method, which the RA summarizes with the pithy formula: yatha lobe tatha dehe— "as in metal, so in the body .. . first test [mercury] on a metal, then use it on the body."20 Moreover, the two elements placed in relation here, metals (loha) and bodies (deha), define the two branches of the tantric alchemical synthesis: these are lohavada, "transmutational alchemy" and dehavada, "elixir alchemy." As this verse makes clear, however, the transmutation of base metals into gold is not an end in itself, but rather the necessary means to the ultimate end of bodily immortality.
of wholesale borrowing. The roots of the revolution that was tantric al chemy may be traced back to the powerful impact of tantrism on Indian mystic and metaphysical speculation on the one hand and to developments within the medical schools on the other. In this latter context, a gradual phasing out of the practice of surgery (s'alyatantra)—a development some attribute to the pervasive influence of the Buddhist ideal of noninjury (ahimsa)—seems to have been counterbalanced by discoveries and inno vations in the field of mercurial and mineral-based medicines.-'1 Tantric alchemy would have inherited some portion of its science from these new developments, which begin to appear both in Ayurvedic works and such tantric alchemical classics as the Rasahrdaya Tantra (RHT) and RA in the tenth to eleventh centuries.
Not only are the goals of tantric alchemy consistent with those of the broader Hindu tantric tradition, but so are its means to attaining those goals. The alchemical Tantras abound in references to tantric formulae (mantras) and diagrams (mandates), as well as in descriptions of divine hier archies, yogic and meditative techniques, sexual and ritual practices, and the Sakta-Saiva devotionalism that are the hallmarks of the tantric tradition as a whole. Many of the major alchemical works of the period call them selves Tantras and are cast as the revealed teachings of Siva (often in his tantric Bhairava form) to some tantric form of the Goddess. For reasons that will be made clear shortly, tantric alchemy was, in the main, a Hindu rather than a Buddhist occult science. Alberuni's account is set in Dhara, the capital of the great king Bhoja of the Paramara dynasty, located in west ern Madhya Pradesh—and it was indeed in western India that the greatest flowering of tantric alchemy occurred. What truly sets tantric alchemy apart from magical alchemy is the rigor of its method and the remarkable breadth of the botanical, mineralogical, chemical, geographical, religious, and technical knowledge it mobilizes in the pursuit of its ambitious ends. Seemingly out of nowhere, the alchemical science burst upon the Indian scene in the tenth century with a laboratory full of specialized equipment and mineral and botanical raw materials in its theoretical inventory which magical alchemy had in no way anticipated. While Chinese (Taoist alchemy) and Persian (the Shi'a Jabirian school) traditions no doubt interacted with tantric alchemy, the Indian material is so specifically Indian—as much in the subcontinental provenance of its materiae primae as in its nearly exclusively Hindu religious and metaphysi cal presuppositions—as to preclude any possibility of this being a matter
Sometime in the fourteenth century, we witness the gradual disappear ance of tantric alchemy and the appropriation of its techniques and goals of transmutation and transubstandation by other Indian systems of thought and practice, both old and new. As already noted, many of the techniques of tantric alchemy were churned back into the Ayurvedic tradi tion from which they had, at least in part, originated. Here the legacy of tantric alchemy is rasa s'astra, Ayurvedic pharmacy, a sine qua non of Ay urvedic practice and a discipline that continues to be taught in Ayurvedic universities and colleges in India down to the present day.22 I have already qualified this reapplication of transmutational and elixir alchemy to therapeutic ends as rogavdda, the "medical alchemy" specific to north Indian Ayurveda. Another development of the same order is rasacikitsa, "mercurial medicine." Although this school retains certain of the reli gious elements of tantric alchemy (its devotional cult of mercury, for example), it nonetheless shifts the emphasis of the latter away from transmutation and bodily immortality towards therapeutic ends. The rasacikitsa school continued, for centuries, to thrive—and even to rival classical Ayurveda—in south India, the eastern states, and the Sind and was ex ported along with classical Ayurveda to Tibet, China, southeast Asia, and Sri Lanka.2' Yet another spin-off of the decline of tantric alchemy was the emergence of transmutational alchemy as an independent pursuit. Here, aurifaction, the production of alchemical gold, became an end in itself, rather than a means to the tantric end of bodily transubstantiation and immortality. Kings interested in increasing the royal treasury are known to have taken a lively interest in this discipline.24 The fourth evolute of tantric alchemy was the tradition I will call Siddha alchemy, which is most readily identified by its emphasis on the combined
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use of mercurial preparations with techniques of hatha yoga for the attain ment of immortality and a mode of being on a par with that of the divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas. In this, it bears certain similarities with the physiological alchemy (mi-tan) of Taoist traditions.'5 The complementar ity of these two modes of practice is intimated in the accounts of Marco Polo and Francois Bernier, inasmuch as both present figures they call "Yo gis" (yogins, practitioners of yoga) who are long-lived and healthy because they eat mercury. An important Indian witness to this complementary em phasis is the fourteenth-century Madhavacarya, who devotes chapter nine of his Sarvadarsana Samgraha to the "Rasesvara Darsana," the "revealed system of the Lord of Mercury."26 What is significant in Madhava's syn thesis is that, while he mainly draws on the tantric alchemical classics (the RA, etc.) to expound the basic principles of the alchemical doctrine, the inferences he draws from them relate specifically to the characteristically dual emphasis of Siddha alchemy, and to its emphasis on stabilizing and immortalizing the body through yoga.27
sics contained all that needed to be known to carry out the alchemical complement to the hathayogic practices proper to a two-pronged approach to bodily immortality. This is clearly the purport of the RA (1.18b) when it states: "Mercury and breath [control] are known as the Work in two parts." It was the complementary discipline ofhatha yoga that required fur ther explanation, and in this field of expertise the Nath Siddhas simply had no rivals. Nearly all of India's hathayogic classics are the works of Nath Siddhas (with the most important of these being attributed to Goraksanatha, i.e., Gorakhnath), and all date from the period of Siddha alchemy. Fur thermore, as we will demonstrate, the language of the Nath Siddhas' hatha yoga is often nothing other than a projection of alchemical discourse upon the human body. The human body is an alchemical body.
The south Indian ciugi alchemists were, in the words of Marco Polo, an "order of monks," while those whom Bernier chronicles in the north were a itinerant order "almost constantly travelling hither and thither." Now, while there were many monastic orders and even many orders of itinerant monks circulating in medieval India, there was only one such order whose highly mobile members enjoyed a reputation as alchemists in this period, and these were the Nath Siddhas, also known as Nath Yogis. The Siddha alchemists were, by and large, Nath Siddhas; and because the Nath Siddhas were itinerant, they made Siddha alchemy a pan-Indian phenomenon. A significant number of alchemical works from this period are attrib uted to Nath Siddhas, although it must be said that none—with perhaps two important exceptions28—are as weighty or innovative as the tantric alchemical classics. Two reasons may be adduced to explain this phenome non. The first of these is that the Nath Siddhas were, for the most part, not members of the Indian literati. Sons of the people—if not the salt of the earth—they simply practiced their alchemy, and when they wrote about it, it was more often in compact, even elliptical, poetry cribbed down in the vernaculars of the day than in Sanskrit. I lad the Nath Siddhas written in Sanskrit, more of their alchemical works would perhaps be extant today. However, their forte was not writing Sanskrit, but rather living and speak ing in the popular speech of their time. The second reason for the relative paucity of Siddha alchemical works is that the old tantric alchemical clas-
The term "Siddha" is an ambiguous one, given that a great number of Hindu and Buddhist schools, sects, and traditions have been so identi fied—either by themselves or (retrospectively) by others—since the Gupta period. The original referent of the term was a class of demigods: in Bud dhist and Hindu traditions alike, the Siddhas shared the interface between earth and sky—mountaintops and the atmospheric region—with a horde (garia) of semidivine beings. In the words of the fifth-century Amarakosa, "The Wizards (Vidyadharas), Nymphs, Dryads, Protectors, Celestial Mu sicians, Centaurs, Ghouls, Hidden Ones, Perfecti (Siddhas), and Beings: these constitute the class of the demigods."2" Gradually, however, the no tion arose that the world or level of the Siddhas and Vidyadharas was one to which humans too could accede, and so it was that throughout the Indian middle ages, a growing pool of such Siddhas came to be shared, together with an expanding body of legend on their subject, by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains alike.'"
3. Magical Alchemy
Vyasa, a fifth-century commentator on Patanjali's Yoga Siitiws, provides us, albeit in an apophatic way, with what may be called the "Siddha char ter"; that is, a comprehensive account of the goals of the human who as pires to Siddha-hood. This he does in his commentary on Yoga Sutra 3.51, which states: "When invited by the celestial beings, that invitation should not be accepted nor should it cause vanity because it involves the possibil ity of undesirable consequences." Vyasa's commentary reads:
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The celestial beings residing in high regions noticing the purity of the intellect of those who have attained unalloyed truth . . . try to invite them by tempting them with enjoyments available in their re gions in the following manner: "() Great Soul, come and sit here and enjoy yourself. It is lovely here. Here is a lovely lady. This elixir pre vents death and decay. Here is a vehicle which can take you to the skies. The tree which fulfils all wishes is here .. . here are the per fected Siddhas and the great seers. Beautiful and obedient nymphs, supernormal eyes and ears, a body of adamantine strength, all are here."" In his Jatakamala, Aryasura refers to experts in demonology or "de monic medicine" for the exorcism of demons (bhutavidya, the fourth limb of Ayurveda), as Siddhavidyas, persons versed in the occult knowledge of the Siddhas.'- At first blush, there appears to be no connection between these two fields of expertise. Yet, upon closer inspection, we in fact find a number of uncanny correspondences, of which many are specifically south Indian, between the two. To begin, the classic work on Ayurvedic demon ology, the Kumara Tantra, is attributed to the great arch-demon of the south and villain of the Sanskrit Ramayana, Ravana.33 In the ca. twelfthcentury Tamil Iramavataram of Kampari, the daughters of Ravana are said to be the wives of the Sittars, the Tamil equivalent of the Siddhas.34 In his commentary on Yoga Sutra 4.1, Vyasa glosses ausadhi, "botanicals"—which Patanjali designates as one of the four means to obtaining siddhis—with rasayana, which he says may be found "in the dwellings of Asuras ['antigods,"demons']." 35 Vyasa's association of botanicals with Asuras is echoed in later com mentaries, including that of the ninth-century Vacaspati Misra, who also glosses ausadhi as rasayana into which, he says, a man may be initiated "by alluring Asura maidens."36 A similar reading is found in the Bhagavata Purana (5.24.13), which employs the term rasa-rasayana to refer to the medici nal herbs employed by the many denizens of the subterranean regions to ensure eternal youth and good health.37 Even today, the Sittar physicians of south India qualify one class of treatment as raksasa.is The great wealth of the subterannean Asuras39 is also enjoyed, according to epic and Puranic traditions, by the Yaksas (the Dryads of India, whose leader Kubera is the god of wealth in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions), and the Nagas, Serpent deities, subterranean plutocrats as well, and India's version of the archetypal dragon who lies atop hoards of buried treasure.
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The Asuras and the subterranean locus of their wealth seem to be con nected to an obscure passage from the eleventh-century RA, which de scribes the types of persons best adapted for "Treasure Practice" (nidhisadhana), and "Hole in the Ground Practice" (bila-sadhana): the former are identified by the digging tools they carry, and the latter by their resem blance to male Asuras (who are ugly and terrible, in contradistinction to their female counterparts).40 With regard to the Serpents as custodians of fabulous underground treasures, a living tradition among the selfproclaimed "Jogis" of the Sind province of Pakistan, who claim descent from the great magician and serpent master Guga Chauhan, is highly illus trative:4' Jogi tradition has it that seven jogis are required to catch a single cobra because although the cobra strikes only two and a half times, it spits out a substantial amount of venom that can be lethal even from a distance. The seven jogis make seven dunghills, dig seven ditches behind them, fill these with water and climb inside with only their heads visible on the surface. Then they start playing their en chanting tunes on their beens to lure the cobra, silently reciting magi cal mantars [Sanskrit: mantras] at the same time . . . Explains Punoo Jogi, "When the sheesh nang ["king cobra": San skrit s'esa naga] is provoked, he strikes at the first dung heap and sets it aflame. While he strikes, the jogi submerges himself in water so that no harm comes to him. Then he lunges again, and yet again but with less force. Once he has disgorged all his poison, he can no longer fight. You should see his rage then. In one final blow, he strikes at the treasure he has been guarding for years and destroys it before finally succumbing to the seven jogis.4-' That is why the jogis have never found the treasure that the sheesh nang guards." The Dryads and Serpents, perhaps the most archaic divinities of India, were gradually absorbed, quite literally, as "props" for the high gods of Hinduism and Buddhism when these became the great religions of the subcontinent. In classical I linduism, it is a Serpent that serves to support the entire universe atop his bejeweled hood; at times when the universe is nonexistent (exactly half the time), he supports the sleeping god Visnu, in whom the universe is contained in a nonmanifest state, serving as his couch.43 Like Visnu, the Buddha too is sheltered by the hood of a Serpent, and the earliest iconographic depiction of such is in fact Buddhist rather than Hindu. This is the third-century A.D. sculpted image of the Buddha,
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on a Serpent couch, from Nagarjunikonda (Andhra Pradesh) in south In dia. It is precisely in this region that the ca. third-century A.D. Buddhist Gandavyuha locates the seat of the bodhisattva Manjusrl, whom it says converted many indigenous Serpents to Buddhism.44 This region is also one that produces a great number of figures with names containing Ndga (serpent): the most illustrious of these is Nagarjuna, whom a number of later traditions identify as a Siddha alchemist hailing from Sriparvata. The ca. first-century A.D. south Indian play, the Mrcchakatika (The Little Clay Cart), the first literary source to make mention of what is ap parently a human Siddha, is the work of an author from Andhra Pradesh, who very likely would have hailed from Sriparvata (also mentioned in the text).45 This Siddha reminds us once more of Banabhatta's hapless south Indian Saiva ascetic who had lost his sight in one eye due to an invisibility salve called siddhaiijana ("perfected, super ointment"), and who knew myri ads of stories concerning Sriparvata. Slightly prior to Banabhatta, the south Indian author Subandhu provides an early mention of mercury {paradd), as well as of Sriparvata, in his comic play, the Vasavadattd.*' Now, sriparvata (or srisailam)—generally identified with a holy peak located in the central Deccan plateau (Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh) of south India47—is a highly generic term for a mountain or hilltop in the Sanskrit and Hindi languages: both simply mean "splendid, auspicious, or excellent peak." Therefore, while the greatest wealth of Siddha lore, both I lindu and Buddhist, is attached to this toponym, we cannot be certain that it is always the Srisailam or Sriparvata of the east central Deccan that is being evoked. The earliest Hindu mention of Srisailam is found in the Mahahbarata which, precisely, identifies it as a place at which to attain siddhis, the stuff that Siddhas are made of.4S It is the Buddhist religious literature, how ever, that contains the greatest wealth of early references to SrlparvataSrisailam. Located in the heart of the Andhra country, a south Indian "Buddhist fief" in the first centuries of the common era, this site was a launching point for missionaries to Kashmir, China, Bengal, and Sri Lanka.49 There are, however, no mentions of siddhis (rddhis in Pali) or Sid dhas in Buddhist evocations of Sriparvata,50 unless one chooses to see in the name of the third-century A.D. heretical "Siddhathaka" school of that region a forerunner of the term Siddha.51 Buddhism was fast losing ground to Saivism in the region by the seventh century, with temples to Siva Siddhesvara ("Lord of the Siddhas") beginning to appear at Srisailam at that time." It is a figure from Tamil Nadu, some distance to the south of the Andhra
country, who first talks about the Siddhas in an informed way. This is the seventh-century Tirumular who, while he is generally held to be the first of the eighteen Sittars (i.e., the Siddhas of Tamil tradition) and the founder of the Sittar school, speaks of the Siddhas—although it is unclear whether he means the semidivine or the human variety—as if they were already an established institution. In his Tmimantiram, Tirumular defines the Siddhas as those "who have experienced divine light and divine energy [s'akti] from within and through yogic integration [safiradhi]!'" Sittar tradition main tains that Tirumular was the disciple of the alchemist Nandi(kesvara); while a certain alchemist by the same name is cited in a number of posttwelfth-century sources, these never attribute any alchemical texts to him, nor are there any extant works of his to prove he was ever anything more than a legendary human or a god of alchemists.54 The discipline of Siddha medicine, butressed by a Siddha alchemy that is in fact a synthesis of hathayogic and alchemical practice, is the presentday legacy of the Sittars in Tamil Nadu. While the extant alchemical works of the eighteen Sittars,55 the storied founders of these traditions, turn out to be quite recent,5'1 the body of legend attached to these figures carries us back, once again, to the lore of magical alchemy. A limited number of documents indicate that a historical figure named Nandi may have lived in the same century as Tirumular. This Nandi, a Buddhist monk from central India, left India in the middle of the seventh century, traveling by sea to Sri Lanka and southeast Asia before arriving in China in A.D. 655. A year later, the emperor of China shipped him off to sea again to collect medicinal herbs. He returned to China in 663.57 Prior even to Nandi, according to Sittar tradition, was the alchemist Bogar (or Pokar or Bhoga), whose links with China are also remarkable. The Sit tar Bogar, who is said to have lived in the third to fifth centuries A.D., is today worshipped at that site in the Palani Hills of Tamil Nadu where he is said to have practiced and taught alchemy.™ Traditions concerning Bogar cast him either as a Chinese philosopher who came to India for the study of medicine, traveling first to Patna and Bodhgaya before taking up resi dence in Madras; or as a south Indian Sittar, who traveled to China and taught alchemy to a ruler named Kong (his disciple Koiiganar,5" according to Sittar tradition) before returning to south India.60 The greatest historical value of these accounts of Bogar and Nandi lies in their references to early maritime exchanges between India and China. The sea trade between India's southeast coast and Han China (via the en trepot of Hanoi), already well under way by the beginning of the common
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era, especially thrived during the golden age of Sino-Indian exchange—of religious ideas as well as goods—of the third to eighth centuries A.D. This was, of course, the period that first saw the export of Buddhism from India to China and, slightly later, the introduction of certain elements of Taoism into Indian religion and culture. (Overland trade along the Silk Road— which brushed India's northwest frontier at Taksasila and Peshawar, and slightly above the Jhelum River in the Punjab—and its spurs, which ran down into the subcontinent's great trading hubs at the port of Bhrgukaccha (Broach), Ujjain, and Patna (via Kathmandu), had already been flourishing since about 110 B.C.).61 We have already seen that Taoist alchemical speculation and experi mentation had already reached an appreciable level of sophistication by the time of these exchanges.62 Here let us also note the important fact that nearly all the mercury the Indian alchemists would later use came from China: given the fact that there exist no mercurial deposits on the subcon tinent, China was India's nearest and obvious supplier.63 It is therefore rather curious that the majority of historical notices from this period in dicate that it was China that was looking to India for alchemical drugs and data. When the I Ian emperors first asked for instruction in the Buddhist faith, they also requested a "drug of immortality" they supposed India to possess.64 While the Chinese have no record of having been visited by an Indian alchemist named Nandi, they do mention an Indian scholar named Narayanasvamin, who was captured and held in the Chinese court in about A.D. 649 because he knew of an elixir of life; later, in 664, an Indian physician named Lokaditya would be summoned there to serve as an alchemistin-residence.65 Slightly earlier, in about A.D. 646, the Chinese offered a Sanskrit translation of the Tao te ching to the king of Kamarupa (Assam), purportedly in exchange for information concerning transmutational and elixir alchemy.66 In charge of that translation was the great seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang who would, in his Suyu chi (Buddhist Records of the Western World), record accounts he had heard in the court of King Harsa concerning the famed Indian alchemist Nagarjuna.67 Yet this was the same royal patron for whom Banabhatta wrote his description of the hydrargyriasic south Indian ascetic, in his Kadambari;68 and the same seventh-century India in which the Chinese pilgrim I-Ching reported, in the account he gave of his travels there between A.D. 671 and 695, cases of grave misuse of mercuric ores as elixirs.69 It was also an India in which a sixth-century
Indian king (of Udyana, in the Swat region of present-day Pakistan) quizzed two Chinese Buddhist visitors to his court on the "Taoist matters" of medicine and science and the silver and golden palaces of the Im mortals.70 The picture that emerges from this period is one of an ongoing ex change between India and China regarding matters alchemical, matters in which China, even if it appears always to have been ahead of India in inno vations throughout this period, nonetheless looked to India for inspira tion.71 Such is perhaps understandable, given the incredible impact Indian Buddhism was having on China. If, however, Indian religion and science were in vogue in China, so too were Chinese traditions in India. More than this, whatever India exported over the mountains to China seemed to come back, in altered form, to be reappropriated by the Indians a few centuries later. A prime example is the Indian yogic tradition, which China received, in a fairly unsophisticated state, along with Buddhism, in the third century A.D. But the Taoist China of the time was already experimenting with what it termed "embryonic respiration" and the "feeding of the vital principle"—practices that were more or less equivalent to Indian yogic techniques, but which, in the Chi nese context, already bore a veneer of alchemical symbolism. A yogic tech nique of apparent Chinese origin, called haan-cbing or "making the Yellow River flow backwards," identified with either the practice of urethral suc tion or that of internally raising semen along the spinal column, would first make its appearance in Indian Mahayana sources7' and later reappear as an erotico-yogic technique of the Nath Siddhas.73 Indeed, Indian tantra first appeared at points of contact with Taoist China and, in the words of Joseph Needham, upon whose masterful Science and Civilisation in Ancient China I have been relying throughout this section, "the Taoist department of Bud dhism was Tantrism." So it was that when Indian tantrism was first intro duced into China in the eighth century by the Buddhist monks Subhakarasirhha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra, a certain number of its techniques were merely "returning" to their country of origin, from which they had been exported but a few centuries earlier.74 The principal Sino-Indian points of contact in this period of exchange were (1) the mountain passes located in the northwestern region of the subcontinent (Himalayan Pakistan and Afghanistan) and (2) Assam to the east—these being the two regions through which the Indian spurs of the Silk Road passed—as well as (3) the major seaports on the coastlines of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, which linked India to China and the west via
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the maritime routes of the day. According to the evidence at our disposal, two illustrious travelers along these trade routes in this period would have been the "Chinese goddess" Tara and the element mercury (pdrada),7S whose entrances into the subcontinent appear to have been curiously linked. Both are said to be sixth-century imports from "greater China" (mahdana, a blanket Sanskrit term applied to both China and Tibet) into a nascent Indian Buddhist tantric tradition, and both are purported to have been brought to India by none other than Nagarjuna.76 The question then arises: Did "Nagarjuna" bring Tara and mercury to India by land or by sea? Both mercury and Tara are mentioned in the sixth-to seventh-century south Indian Vasavadattd," which would indicate a maritime link with eastern China; but both are also mentioned in the sixth-century Astanga Samgraba,1* which was probably composed in Ujjain, in western Madhya Pradesh. The earliest recorded case of Tara worship in India comes to us from seventh-century Nalanda, the great Buddhist com plex located in modern-day Bihar (whose main links to China were over land, via Patna to the north);7" a century later, we read of a temple built to the "Chinese goddess" in Kafici, on the coast of Tamil Nadu.80 This coastal location reminds us of what may have been Tara's original role: she was a goddess of navigation, of sea crossings—tara is generated from the verb tr, to cross over the sea.81 A fanciful eighteenth-century Ti betan source, the dPag-bsam-ljon-bzan, brings these elements together in a unique way. Saying that Nagarjuna was born in Kanci, it goes on to de scribe how he sailed across the sea on a craft made of two fig leaves, until he came to an intermediate continent, from which he brought a goldmaking elixir back to his monastery at Nalanda.82 Now, Tibet's source of mercury has long been Yunnan, in southeastern China,85 which shares a border with Annam (Vietnam), of which Hanoi was the major port for maritime commerce with India and southeast Asia. That the back country of Annam was rich in mercurial ores is demon strated by a historical anecdote from China: the great mercurial alchemist Ko Hung (ca. A.D. 300) requested and received a transfer to that province, into an administrative position unworthy of his rank in the imperial bu reaucracy, in order that he might have ready access to the cinnabar (red mercuric sulfide) he needed to conduct his experiments!84 We further know that mercury was carried in the cargo holds of the ships that plied these Sino-Indian trade routes in later centuries. On the one hand, we find a report of over a ton of the stuff being warehoused in the Malaysian port of Malacca;85 and on the other, we know that the Indian port cities of Surat
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The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
(Gujarat), Murshidabad (Bengal), Calcutta, and Madras have long been centers for the fabrication of synthetic cinnabar and calomel (mercurous chloride), using native Indian minerals and imported mercury, since at least the sixteenth century A.D.86 Also supporting a direct Sino-south In dian maritime link in matters alchemical is the fact that Sittar alchemy and medicine have always been more mineral based and "Taoist" than the more herb-based northern traditions.87 Against a maritime link, and in favor of an overland connection in the mercury and Tara trade, we can marshal the following evidence. The Ti betans themselves have historically purchased their mercury from Chinese traders who transported it to Tibet; here, the obvious link would have been an overland one.88 So too, the mercury that reached Varahamihira (author of the Brhat Samhita) and Vagbhatta the Elder in northwest India quite certainly traveled overland, via the Silk Road or one of its spurs. What of Tara? On the strength of two passages from the third- to eleventh-century A.D. Sadhanamdld (The Garland of Practice), Tara is generally considered to have been brought to Nalanda, directly from Bhota (Tibet) by Nagar juna. Yet, in fact, the passages in question concern two different forms of Tara, named Vajra ("Diamond") Tara and Ekajata ("One Lock of Hair").8'' Now, Kkajata is also known as Mahaclnatara, as if to emphasize her Ti betan roots. In the Tibetan Buddhism of the Dragon Kaju sect, Ekajata is in fact the consort of an "ancient" Nyingma divinity named Quicksilver (i.e., mercury), identified with Bhairava Yamantaka ("Terrible Slayer of Death"). In the Padmaist literature of the same Nyingma school, she is the consort of the god Amrtakundali, who is also known by the epithet "King of Elixirs."90 With this, we perhaps arrive at the source of the tradition that Nagar juna brought "mercury," together with Tara, from Tibet in this period. Yet if Nagarjuna did indeed bring Tara and mercury to India from Tibet, it is curious that the sixth- to seventh-century Astanga Samgraha, which men tions both Tara and mercury, should make no mention of Nagarjuna. More than this, Tibetan tradition itself maintains that the worship of Tara was introduced into that country from Nepal—in the seventh century, i.e., later than the earliest mentions of her in Indian sources!"1 This would make the claim that Nagarjuna introduced Tara to India "from Tibet" an untenable one, unless it is the two specifically Tibetan forms (Vajratara and Ekajata) of the goddess that are intended. As we will shortly see, the alche mist Nagarjuna manages to elude the historian at nearly every turn. I have already noted that there are no mercurial ores native to the Indian
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subcontinent. The same, in fact, holds true for Tibet, which means that if Nagarjuna brought mercury to India from Tibet at the end of the Gupta age, then it was very likely Chinese mercury that he brought from there; for it is from Yunnan in southeastern China that the Tibetan supply came.9' This Chinese source likely lies at the origin of one of the many Sanskrit terms employed for cinnabar, the most commonly occurring mer curial ore in the world. This is the word cinapista, "Chinese powder." Many of the other terms for mercury or its ores also indicate regions to the northwest of India (and west of Tibet) as its region of provenance. Parada, the most common alchemical term for mercury, refers to Parada-desa, the land of the Parthians or Paradas of Transoxiania or the Baluchistan region; darada, red cinnabar, to Darada-desa, the modern Dardistan, in northern Kashmir; hingida, cinnabar, to Hiriglaj (-Devi) in Baluchistan or to a coun try called Hiiigula. The term mleccha, "(proper to) the (central Asian) bar barian (races)" would have been a more blanket term.'" Cinnabar and other mercurial ores occur naturally throughout the trans-Himalayan regions of central Asia, as well as in Chitral (Pakistan), Garmshir (Afghanistan), and Yunnan, and it was from these regions that India's supply of mercury would likely have come.94
4. Desperately Seeking Nagarjuna: The Buddhist Evidence The origins of Indian alchemy are closely linked to the figure of Nagar juna, who, whenever one attempts to pin him down as a historical person age, proves to be quite as protean and mercurial as quicksilver itself. One has the feeling that if it were only possible to extract Nagarjuna the al chemist out of the welter of the Nagarjunas who dot the mythology and history of Indian religions and medicine, one would be well on the way to generating a coherent history of Indian alchemy.95 Yet, there are so many Nagarjunas to choose from. In addition to the Nagarjunas I have already mentioned to this point (the Nagarjuna who purportedly brought mercury and Tara to India, and the Nagarjuna who sailed to the intermediate conti nent on a fig-leaf boat to recover a "gold-making elixir") there are perhaps a dozen other figures with the same name—who may or may not have been the same person, and who, all told, would have authored over a hundred works on a wide array of subjects'*—connected in some way with the In dian alchemical tradition. These include Nagarjuna the Madhyamika phi losopher, Nagarjuna the tantric Buddhist author and commentator, Nagar-
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The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
juna the Hindu tantric sorcerer, Nagarjuna the Nath Siddha, Nagarjuna the north Indian medical author, Nagarjuna the south Indian medical au thor,"" Nagarjuna the Buddhist alchemist, Nagarjuna the Jain alchemist, Nagarjuna the northern Hindu alchemist, Nagarjuna the southern Hindu alchemist,98 Nagarjuna the eye doctor, Nagarjuna the sexologist, Nagar juna the parfumeur—so many Nagarjunas, so little time! Whereas Albert Griinwedel called him the "Faust of Buddhism,"99 Max Walleser, the west ern scholar who probably toiled the longest at attempting to identify the historical Nagarjuna, concluded that no Nagarjuna ever existed!100 Tibetan historians have had it both ways, simply allowing that a single figure named Nagarjuna alchemically prolonged his life for 520 to 1000 years, during which he found the time to dabble in or master all of the fields men tioned above. Nagarjuna bursts upon the stage of intellectual and religious history as the south Indian founder (ca. second century A.D.) of the Madhyamika school of philosophy within the then-nascent current of Buddhism called Mahayana.101 An extremely prolific writer, he was the author of the seminal Mahayana text, the Prajiiaparamitasastra, a commentary on the revealed "Teachings of the Perfection of Wisdom" (Prajnaparamita Sutras). Ac cording to legend, these teachings had been preserved for millennia in the netherworld of the Nagas, before being restored to the world by Nagar juna. Chinese sources relate that a great serpent (mahanaga) opened a seven-jeweled chest for Nagarjuna, from which he recovered the Vaipulya (Mahayana) teachings;102 according to later Tibetan legend, he was initi ated by the Nagas (whence his name) and received the Perfection of Wis dom texts directly from them."" A number of sources, whose historical veracity is equally suspect, in dicate that the Madhyamika philosopher Nagarjuna was the protege and companion of a certain ruler of the Satavahana dynasty which ruled over the Andhra country between the first century B.C. and the second century A.D.104 Banabhatta speaks in his Harsacarita of "a monk named Nagarjuna" who had presented Satavahana with an elixir in the form of a jewel called "Pearl-Wreath MandakinI," which had been given to him by the king of the Nagas.105 According to Hsuan-tsang, the Chinese pilgrim who was Bana's contemporary at the court of Harsa, the "Bodhisattva Nagarjuna" was so skilled in the art of compounding medicines that he had produced a pill with which he had extended his own life as well as that of his royal compan ion for many hundreds of years. Later, as Hsuan-tsang relates, it happened that the king ran out of funds while building a monastery for Nagarjuna at
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Bhramaragiri, "Black Bee Hill." At this point, "the Bodhisattva Nagarjuna (Lung-Meng Phu-Sa) scattered some drops of a numinous and wonderful pharmakon over certain large stones, whereupon they all turned to gold," thus resolving Satavahana's problems and his own.""' While there is good evidence that such a monastery was built in the Andhra country, we cannot be sure that it was built prior to the fifth century A.D., at which time it is mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hsien (who identifies it with Srlparvata)."17 Hsuan-tsang further describes a meeting he had, somewhere in the northeastern Punjab, with a brahmin disciple of bodhisattva Nagarjuna who, although he was seven hundred years old, looked to be only thirty.108
Tibetan sources make, mainly in the form of retrospective prophecies concerning the Buddha. These prophecies, which begin to appear in the fourth- through fifth-century Mahamegha Sutra, are the reef against which every attempt to locate the historical Nagarjuna has foundered. The pivot of these so-called prophecies—a figure whom tradition identifies as "Siddha Nagarjuna"—would have been an important seventh- or eighthcentury teacher in the fledgling tantric Buddhist tradition. It is this Nagar juna who is said to have been Saraha's disciple at Nalanda and to have brought mercury and the goddess Tara from Tibet to India.
Even in those Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian legends in which the phi losopher Nagarjuna is made out to be an alchemist of sorts—the possessor of an elixir of long life and some rudiments of transmutational alchemy— there is never any specific mention of the raw materials (such as mercury) or techniques he employs in his craft. This omission is of a piece with the magical alchemy of the period on the one hand and, on the other, with a handful of vague references to aurifaction contained in a number of Ma hayana texts, of which at least two are attributed to the philosopher Nagar juna. These are the Mahaprajnapara?nitasastra, which contains four refer ences to transmutational alchemy; and the Avatamsaka Sutra (attributed to Nagarjuna by Fa-hsien and translated into Chinese in A.D. 699).IO" In addi tion to these sources, references to magical alchemy are found in the fourth- through sixth-century Mahayana Samgraha Bhasya (a commentary on Asahga translated into Chinese in about A.D. 650 by Hsuan-tsang) and the Abhidharma Mahavibhasa (translated and considerably lengthened over a fifth-century recension by Hsuan-tsang himself, in A.D. 659).110 Given the paucity of alchemical references in writings attributed to the second-century philosopher Nagarjuna, one wonders why this figure should have been perceived, in the seventh-century sources I have been citing, to have been such a great alchemist. The most plausible explanation would be that Banabhatta and I Isuan-tsang had heard of another Nagar juna, a near contemporary of themselves, and had conflated this later figure with the renowned Madhyamika philosopher—a not-untenable proposi tion, given the tradition that he had produced an elixir of long life. A num ber of lineage lists identify a Nagarjuna who would have lived in the first half of the seventh century as the disciple of Saraha at the great Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, where alchemy was reputedly part of the curriculum. 1 " It is just such an assumption that a number of Sanskrit, Chinese, and
Before we proceed any further, two points need to be made clear con cerning "Siddha Nagarjuna." The first of these is that he is nowhere re ferred to as "Siddha" in the period (ca. seventh through eighth centuries) in which he purportedly lived. He is either simply called Nagarjuna or has the title Arya prefixed or the ending -pa (or -pada) suffixed to his name." 2 The Siddha appellation is, as we will see, an ex post facto categorization on the part of later tantric genealogists who, in the eleventh century, began to refer to their founding gurus as the Siddhacaryas ("perfected teachers"), Mahasiddhas, or simply the eighty-four Siddhas. However, just as persons living in Palestine prior to the birth of Jesus Christ did not refer to their age as "B.C," SO the Indian innovators of tantric Buddhism did not call themselves "Siddhas." Second, the confusion of this seventh- to eighth-century figure (whom later convention identifies as "Siddha Nagarjuna") with the secondcentury philosopher of the same name likely derives from the fact that each was associated with a figure named Aryadeva. Nagarjuna the philosopher was the teacher of Aryadeva, while "Siddha" Nagarjuna's disciple Karnaripa was also known as Aryadeva.1" Grafted to this composite Nagarjuna are associations—which I have already noted in the writings of Hsuantsang and others—with a king named Satavahana and the site of Snparvata. The most baroque concatenations of these data are the work of the Ti betans, whose "prophecies" concerning Nagarjuna maintain that he was born in Saurashtra (Gujarat) 400 years after the Buddha's parinirvanan* and lived for over 500 years, passing the first 200 years of his life at Nal anda, the second 200 "in south India,""5 and the final 129 or 171 years at Srlparvata, where he voluntarily gave up his life at the request of Satavaha na's son. In nearly none of these prophecies—neither those of the Tibetans nor the Indian or Chinese sources upon which they drew—is Nagarjuna ever referred to as a Siddha; on the other hand, the name of this figure alternates between Nagarjuna, Nagabodhi, Nagahvaya, and Nagaraja."6
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His amazing longevity is a tenable proposition only if one is prepared to accept the notion, as the Tibetans did, that Nagarjuna's alchemy served to dilate his life span. It is only in the late Tibetan sources, moreover, that we find explicit references to Siddha Nagarjuna as an alchemist. The fourteenth-century historian Bu-ston states that Nagarjuna procured a gold-making elixir from the intermediate continent and so saved Nalanda from the ravages of famine. In the early seventeenth century, Taranatha expatiates on this theme, stating that "with the help of the art of alchemy, he maintained for many years five hundred teachers of the Mahayana doctrine at Sri Nalendra [sic]!' Later, he adds that "from the time he became a rasayana siddha, his face shone like a gemstone." In a similar vein, another late Tibetan source states that after Nagarjuna had received his tantric initiation from his guru, the Siddhacarya Saraha-pa, he "attained success . . . especially in rasayana" such that his body became as hard as a diamond (yajrakayasiddhi). This, however, runs against the teachings of his guru, given the fact that Saraha-pa criticizes those who practice rasa-rasayana in one of his vernacular songs." 7 Of the fifty-nine works attributed to Nagarjuna and translated, in the twelfth through thirteenth centuries A.D. into Tibetan in the Tanjur, none contains any alchemical material." 8 One would therefore have to assume that if a seventh- through eight-century Nagarjuna did practice alchemy at Nalanda, he left no written records of his work there. Elsewhere, the Tibetan mythology of the eighty-four Siddhas casts a number of "debates" between Buddhist and Hindu figures as so many "siddhi-contests" So we read that Lalitavajra had a contest of magic power with the Hindus in the kingdom of Naravarma in the west. "The teacher swallowed a quantity of poison and two wine-jars full of mercury. Still he remained unaffected. The king was full of reverence.""9 If, however, the Buddhists won this particular battle, in the end they lost the Indian war: a victim of the Muslim invasions that were overtaking the continent, as well as of its own growing resemblance to Hindu Tantra, Buddhist Tantra and Buddhism effectively disappeared from the Indian subcontinent by the twelfth century. In a sense, the early alchemical tradition epitomized a syncretistic trend that had been ongoing since the origins of Tantra, with matitras, clan lineages, and divinities converging with one another.120 The al chemists' gods were precisely those divinities who had come to occupy the no-man's-land of the Hindu-Buddhist tantric divide: Tara and Aksobhya, of whom Hindu forms would emerge in about the tenth century; Avalokitesvara, whom the Hindus would identify with Siva Lokanatha; Vajra-
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The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
sattva-Adibuddha, whom they would identify with Adinatha; and Bhairava, Bhairavi, and Mahakala, whom Buddhism borrowed from Hinduism. In concrete terms, Indian Buddhism was losing its specificity, and thereby its royal patronage, a situation which, in the face of the Muslim conquests, proved fatal. Of course, export Buddhism of a tantric stamp continues to flourish in Tibet (into which it was introduced, from eastern India, perhaps from Nalanda itself, in the eighth century) down to the present day; and it is precisely in Tibet that we may glimpse what became of the Buddhist al chemical tradition. What is intriguing about the alchemy of Tibetan Bud dhism is that it more closely resembles earlier Taoist practices and contem porary Hindu erotico-mystical techniques than it does the procedures and goals of transmutational and elixir alchemy. For all intents and purposes, external alchemy disappears from Buddhism at about the same time as Buddhism disappears from the Indian subcontinent. So it is that we find very few Tibetan references, apart from those cited a moment ago, to the practice of any sort of alchemy by the Siddhacaryas—i.e., by the teachers who founded the tantric Buddhist path, between the seventh and twelfth centuries A.D. Karnari-pa obtains an elixir from urine; Carpata-pa gains the power to transmute as well as an elixir of immortality from a boy's penis and anus, respectively; and Vyadi-pa produces an alchemical elixir with the aid of a prostitute; this last figure is also the author of two of only four Indian alchemical works to be translated into Tibetan and included in the Tanjur.11' The Kalacakra Tantra, with its early eleventh-century Vimalaprabha commentary, offers us the most penetrating view we have of any specifi cally Buddhist alchemical system.1-2 In contradistinction to the "external" Hindu tantric alchemy that was emerging in the same century, Buddhist alchemy was headed in an "internal" direction. This is precisely what we find in the Kalacakra Tantra tradition: the external manipulation of metals and mercurials, which it calls gold making (gser 'gyur), has been declared "mundane" and inferior to the "transmundane" inner alchemy {rasayana) of "channels and winds," which can lead to direct enlightenment.123 Those passages of the Vimalaprabha which do, however, speak of external al chemy, are remarkable in their resemblance to portions of the eleventhcentury Hindu tantric alchemical classic, the RA.n* But from a closer per spective—or at least from the perspective adopted by both the Padmaists of the Nyrng-ma school125 and the encyclopedist Bo dong—inner alchemy is tantamount to an "extraction of the essence" {hcudlen) that is quite iden-
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tical to the Taoist, Mahayana, and I lindu hathayogic techniques of urethral suction and the "hydraulic" raising of the semen along the spinal column. In Vajrayana parlance, "alchemy" consists of the fixing of the bodhiritta— by combining the ambrosial essences (bdud itsi) of Prajfia (the goddess "Wisdom") and Upaya (the male "Skill in Means")—and the cultivation of a "rainbow body" (ja' his) or a "body of light" (W Ins).12'' In concrete terms, the goal of tantric Buddhist alchemy is to produce the nectar of immortality and wisdom through a combination of semen and uterine blood that is at once yogic and sexual. Hindu alchemy employs the same techniques, but complements these with the mineral-based elixirs of exter nal alchemy. Whereas the erotico-mystical practices of tantra (which I lindu yogins would later term vajivli mudra) become identified as "al chemy" in Tibetan Buddhism,127 erotico-mystical practice and external al chemy remain two complementary yet distinct disciplines in Hindu tan tric alchemy. It is apposite to note that the tenth-century twilight of magical alchemy is also the dawning of no fewer than three distinct forms of tantric practice from within and beyond the borders of India. On the one hand, we observe the emergence of tantric alchemy, which combines an "external" transmutational and elixir alchemy with the "internal," but nonetheless concrete (and explicitly hydraulic) practices of hatha yoga and tantric sexual tech niques. Its goal is the production of an immortal yet concrete diamond body that transcends the laws of nature. Second, there is the Tibetan Buddhist internalization of alchemy into a meditative and ritualized form of yoga, whose goal is the acquisition of a spiritualized body of light.,2S Third, there is the Hindu Trika Kaula, which sublimates the same concrete hathayogic and sexual techniques into a meditational and ritual system whose goal is the acquisition of a divinized body of sound.'2'' All three of these emergent systems were in fact refinements upon an original tantric synthesis, which was based, to a great extent, on the worship of terrible, ravenous deities, with the fluids produced in sexual intercourse. All three were, like the ma trix from which they arose, soteriologies, individual paths to salvation from the trammels of human existence,"0 and all three were unique and inno vative inasmuch as they professed self-divinization—of three different types—as the means to such transcendence. The India that Buddhism left behind was in many ways tantric, and a number of Buddhist elements find their way into Hindu tantrism in this period. These include a number of Buddhist deities, the four Buddhist pithas,'" various elements of Buddhist discourse and practice and, as we
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shall see, a significant number of Buddhist teachers, in whose number Nagarjuna figures prominently. Elsewhere, we may attribute uncanny paral lels between the Buddhist and I lindu tantrism of this pivotal period to the simple fact that the two traditions were, in spite of their professed mutual animousity, so close to one another."-' Most striking in this regard is the resemblance between Tibetan alchemy's "extraction of the [innate, divine] essence [from the gross corporeal body]" and a Hindu tantric practice de scribed by Bhavabhuti in his eighth-century play, Malatl-Madhava. Here, a female Kapalika tantrika named Kundakapala attains the power of flight by extracting the quintessence {pancamna) of her five bodily elements. This same passage is also a Hindu watershed inasmuch as it constitutes the earliest mention in Indian literature, sacred or secular, of the six energy centers (cakras) of the subtle body in the practice of hatha yoga. It may be herein that the original sense of the term rasayana lies: it is the "coining forth" (ayana) of the fluid essence (rasa).[Si Now, the Plindu" 4 tantric schools in whose works the six cakras of ha thayogic practice make their earliest appearance are the pascimamnaya or Western Transmission and the Yogini Kaula founded by Matsyendranath, which predate the Trika Kaula reformer Abhinavagupta, who makes veiled allusions to both in his ca. A.D. iooo Tantraloka.m As we will show in some detail, these two Kaula sects were closely related, mainly through the per son of Matsyendra, whom the Nath Siddhas would later claim as their founding guru. Matsyendra's classic work, the KaulajMnamrnaya (KJtlN) (Discussion of the Kaula Gnosis), revealed in Kamarupa (Assam) in the ninth or tenth century, is important inasmuch as it constitutes the earliest explicit account we have of Hindu India's earliest Siddha clans or sects, the Siddha and YoginT Kaulas."6 The revelations of the KJiiN were "brought down" (avatarita) at a site called CandradvTpa ("Moon Island"), a toponym which further links Matsyendra's Siddha and Yogini Kaulas to the Western Transmission, whose textual canon was "brought down"—by a figure vari ously called Srinatha, Srikantha, Adinatha, or Siddhanatha—at a lunar location called Candragiri, Candradvlpa, Candrapuri, or Candrapltha." 7 In one such canonical text, the Kubjikanityahnikatilaka, we find an account that appears to dramatize the changes that were occuring on the Indian tantric landscape in this period. Here, we are told that Srinatha—with the aid of three Siddhas named Sun, Moon, and Fire—founded the tantric kula tradition, "at the beginning of the Kali Yuga," at a site called Candrapuri ("Moon Gity"), located in Korikana, in coastal western India. The original core of this new kula, the text continues, was composed of nine Naths who,
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Chapter Three
originally Buddhist monks, had converted when, through a miracle pro duced by Srinatha, the roof of their monastery had collapsed!"" This "conversion," from Buddhism to I Iinduism, carries much further in this context. First of all, a lineage found in the Grub tbob, a ca. fourteenth-century Tibetan translation 1 " of Abhayadatta's eleventh- to twelfth-century Caturasitisiddha Pravrtti (Acts of the Eighty-four Siddhas), identifies two figures, Vyadi and Kubjika, as disciples of "Siddha Nagarjuna." l4° As already noted, Vyadi is an alchemist (he is the last of the eightyfour Siddhacaryas); as we will see, he is an alchemist who figures promi nently in Hindu lists of the Rasa Siddhas (the traditional founders of the alchemical tradition), lists that appear in a number of the major alchemical tantras. Such also appears to be the case with Kubjika: the same name is applied to a male Siddhacarya in Buddhist tantrism and to a female deity (Kubjika) in Hindu tantrism. Whether it was the Hindus or the Buddhists who had the first claim to these figures is a moot question; what is im portant here is that both, like the Nagarjuna with whom they are associated in this particular lineage, are pivotal figures in the Buddhist-Hindu tantric syncretism. With the departure of Buddhism from the subcontinent, the alchemist Vyadi, the goddess Kubjika, and the polymath Nagarjuna be come transformed, in medieval India, into exclusively Hindu figures— figures who are closely linked, moreover, to the history and mythology of tantric alchemy. They also become linked with figures—divine, symbolic, or (super)human—identified as "Naths" or "Siddhas." But, just as was the case with tantric Buddhism and its Mahasiddhas or Siddhacaryas, the 1 Iindu application of the terms Nath, Siddha, and Nath Siddha to semihistorical human figures is an ex post facto one. Once again, it is not until the eleventh or twelfth century that we find these terms being applied, retrospectively, to such historical and legendary figures as the Hindu Nagarjuna, Vyadi, Goraksa, or Matsyendra. (While this last figure defined die Siddha Kaula, and was retrospectively identified as the guru of Gorakhnath, founder of the Nath Siddhas, he is nowhere referred to as "Matsyendra Siddha" or "Siddha Matsyendranath" prior to the fourteenth century). I by no means wish to imply that such figures did not live during the period I have been chronicling. There can be no doubt that historical figures named Nagarjuna, Matsyendra, Goraksa, etc., defined the religious landscape of a certain Gupta and post-Gupta India. It must, however, be allowed that these figures' lives, acts, and words became fused, in the popu lar imagination, with those of gods and demigods, in whose number the divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas must be counted.141
75
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
We can also argue that by the tenth century, human individuals or or ders known as Siddhas already existed in everything but name in India. In the centuries that followed, these individuals and their real or alleged writ ings would come to be collated, anthologized, canonized, and institution alized into (i) Siddha lists, (2) a massive body of Siddha literature, and (3) a loosely structured confederation of Siddha religious orders. All of these post-tenth-century enumerations, canonizations, and institutionalizations would look to the age of magical alchemy for their origins, and invariably find them, in a name, a text, or a real or imagined lineage. The selfproclaimed Siddhas of later history invented their past as a means of justi fying their own lives, works, and institutions: the "charismatic" superheroes of the past—fast on their way to becoming "divinized" through an identification of them with the Siddhas and Vidyadharas of earlier cults— were also becoming "institutionalized" into the sectarian founders they never had been.142 As I demonstrate in the next chapter, historiographers of the medieval Siddha traditions have failed to come to terms with this fact, and have therefore always found themselves struggling to bridge unaccountable gaps of hundreds of years between the legendary "biographies" of many of these Siddhas and their literary productions or institutional roles. Their efforts have been in vain: just as new individuals named Nagarjuna or Matsyendra appeared on the Indian religious landscape once every one to two hundred years, so too entire founding lineages were created or reappropriated by selfproclaimed Siddha traditions at several centuries' remove from the time in which their founders may have lived.143 Before turning to the Hindu side of the Siddha phenomenon, I must attempt to account for the alchemical reputation of the Buddhist "Siddha Nagarjuna" for the period just discussed, the seventh to tenth centuries. As with the case of the philosopher Nagarjuna, there is little hard evidence to go on, beyond the body of legend bequeathed to us by Hsuan-tsang and others. In this light, it appears significant that the seventh-century Chinese scholar-pilgrim claimed to have met an alchemical disciple of Nagarjuna who looked to be only thirty, in spite of his seven hundred years. If he was indeed thirty, or slightly older, then we have grounds to believe that a re puted alchemist named Nagarjuna did in fact live in the first half of the seventh century. The Yogas'ataka, datable to either the seventh or ninth century and the work of an "Acarya Sri Nagarjuna," is mainly devoted to herbal, rather than mercurial, remedies, although some of its preparations are called "elixirs"
76 Chapter Three
77
The Prehistory of Tantric Alchemy
(rasayanas) or "nectars" (ar?ntas).[M This same Nagarjuna may have been (i) the editor of the Susruta Sambita responsible for the appendix entitled "Uttara Sthana" (although this section contains no innovative data on mer curial medicines);145 (2) the figure singled out by the ninth-century Vrnda as having carved instructions for the ophthamological use of black mer curic sulfide—a preparation he calls nagaijima-varta—into a pillar at Pataliputra (Patna, the capital of modern-day Bihar);14'' (3) an alchemist whom the eleventh-century Alberuni mentions as having lived some one hundred years prior to himself;11'' and (4) the author of a work on metal lurgy referred to as the Lohas'astra of Nagarjuna by Cakrapanidatta, in the ca. A.D. 1075 Cikitsasamgraha, a commentary on the Caraka Sambita and itself an Ayurvedic watershed in the use of mercurial medicines.148 This composite ninth-century Nagarjuna would therefore have had to have been a figure distinct from the seventh-century Nalanda alchemist-monk, if one ever existed.149 To conclude, then, we can very tentatively identify three Nagarjunas from what has been called the period of "magical" alchemy. These are (1) the ca. second-century A.D. Madhyamika philosopher whose only alchemi cal feats were mythical; (2) the early seventh-century disciple of Saraha, and resident of Nalanda and Sriparvata, whose alchemical reputation reached the ears of Hsuan-tsang (who was himself the translator of two Mahayana texts containing references to magical alchemy), but who left no alchemical works for posterity; and (3) the ninth-century author of the Yogasataka and the appendix to the Susruta Sambita, about whom Alberuni heard reports in the early eleventh century. It is only some two to three centuries after Alberuni that we encounter an alchemical author named either Siddha or Srlman Nagarjuna in chapter colophons. These are three extant Hindu works, which shade in their content from tantric sorcery into alchemy—the Knksaputa Tantra, the Yogaratnamala As'atryaratnamala) and the Rasendra Maiigala.
(also called
the
Finally, I close this chapter on the age of magical alchemy with a note of caution to anyone who would attempt to interpret the general history of this period. This I do mainly as a corrective to south Indian historians of Siddha medicine who maintain that the Sittar alchemists had already perfected their craft long before the time of the sixth- to seventh-century Tirumular and Nandi.15" First, there is no evidence to show that any al chemy—even as practiced by persons who may already have been calling themselves Siddhas—prior to the tenth century A.D. was anything but "magical." Second, while most of our data concerning magical alchemy is
of southern provenance, this in no way implies that it was of Tamil origin. In fact, nearly all signs from this period point either to the Andhra country (Srtparvata-Srisailam) or to western India as the cradle of the alchemical art in India. It is, moreover, in these two regions that the so-called Mahesvara Siddhas begin to appear in the tenth century and that magical alchemy became transmuted, as it were, into tantric and Siddha alchemy.
79
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
FOUR
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy in India
i. Medieval Lists of Rasa Siddhas and Nath Siddhas Among the most valuable historical documents we have at our disposal for charting the period in which (i) "outer alchemy" disappeared from Buddhism, (2) Buddhism disappeared from India, and (3) Hindu Siddha alchemy emerged out of a fusion of tantric alchemy with the discipline of hathayoga are retrospectively compiled lists of Siddhas (both Buddhist and Hindu) and Naths (exclusively Hindu), that proliferated throughout the Indo-Tibetan world between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. It is in these sources that the appellation Siddha comes to be used extensively, as a blanket term covering most of the figures—some historical, others legend ary, others divine, and still others clearly undecided—whose lives and acts I review in these pages. While we cannot be certain that such was the case, the ordering of the names in the Siddha lists at times appears to correspond to guruparamparas, i.e., to the clan lineages' of teachers and disciples through which the mystic Siddha doctrines were transmitted. Here, the Siddha lists would constitute simplifications of an earlier set of models. These were the ca. ninth-century A.D. idealized "post-scriptural systematizations"-1 of the ma jor tantric sects and texts. These records often took the form of mystic diagrams (mandalas), in which the clans (kulas) of the divinities and legend ary preceptors of the major sectarian divisions of Hindu tantrism were set forth schematically. Such ?nandalas or yantras were at once divine and hu man genealogies, ritual and meditational supports, and models of and for microcosmic, mesocosmic, and macrocosmic reality, in which color, num ber, direction, divine name, vital breath, activity of consciousness, sensory organ, etc., were so many simultaneous proofs for the coherence of the world system they charted: structure and function were congruent.'
78
In the absence of anything comparable to a systematic theology (for which god would one choose?) or a religious anthropology, Puranic Hindu ism lent much attention to what one scholar has termed "systematic geogra phy, " the elaboration of a spatial grid of the great chain of being, from the highest gods to the most abject demons, via the realms of humans, demigods, sages, and all manner of other creatures.4 In the tantric context, however, it is perhaps more proper to speak of "systematic genealogy" rather than sys tematic geography or cosmology, given the fact that the cardinal directions to which the major clans of the tantric mandalas were assigned appear to bear no correlation whatsoever to the geographic locations of these sects or their founders. Rather, these were, in a quite literal sense, organizational "flow charts," in which the flow in question was of sexual fluids emanating first from the godhead and radiating outwards, through the biological transmis sion, via goddesses and yoginls, of the clan nectar (kuladravya), into the vari ous sectarian clans, orders, and sects. Through their systematic genealogies, the tantrikas at once located themselves within the cosmic chain of being and within a network of socioreligious institutions. The major tantric classificatory systems that will concern us here—in asmuch as certain names found in them correspond to names found in the Siddha lists detailed below—are those of the pithas and amnayas. While the former term is nearly always employed to denote a "footstool" or pil grimage site of the Goddess in Sakta devotionalism, there also emerged, around the time of the Brahmayamala Tantra (ca. ninth century A.D.) a tra dition of four "literary" pithas. Here, the major texts (together with the practices and methods they espoused) of earlier tantrism were classified, purportedly on the basis of the principal subjects they treated—but in fact rather artificially—under the headings of vidyd, mantra, mudrd, and mandala pithas. Most of the important texts of this classificatory system fell under the rubrics of the vidyapitha- and mantrapitha. Somewhat later,6 the classificatory system of the amnayas ("lines of transmission") was devised to classify Kaula sects and texts. While sectar ian cleavages based on the name of the major cult goddesses figure most prominently here, the theoretical classifications are geographical. The four amnayas are the eastern (Trika, whose cult centers on the three Para god desses), northern (Krama, which worships Kali), western (which worships the goddess Kubjika, the "Contracted One," an alloform of the hathayogic kundalint), and southern (Srividya, which worships the goddess Tripurasundarl) transmissions.7
Bo Chapter Four While it is likely that the historical value of the Siddha lists is as limited as that of the mandalas of tantric pitha and anmaya classifications," a com parative overview will offer insights into what the medieval mystics of In dia—Buddhists, Hindus, Jains (and later, Muslims), yogins and alchemists alike, from Tibet to south India—considered to be their heritage. In the words of Giuseppe Tucci, the "Siddhas are the most eminent personalities of medieval India's esoterism and represent the ideal link between Sivaism and Vajrayana, indeed the expression of the same religious and mystical endeavor, translated through analogous symbols.'"' These figures were al ways first and foremost Siddhas, and it would be erroneous to maintain that the inclusion of a figure's name in a Buddhist Siddha list made him a Buddhist, or that a name figuring in a Rasa Siddha list necessarily made that person an alchemist. The Siddhas, a pool of wizards and demigods, supermen and wonder-workers that all south Asians (and Tibetans) could draw on to slake the thirst of their religious imagination, were the most syncretistic landmarks on the religious landscape of medieval India.10 Our presentation of the medieval Siddha lists will, with a single excep tion, be a chronological one: we will insert the list from the fifteenthcentury Hathayogapradlpika (HYP) of Svatmarama before two fourteenthcentury lists (from the Varnaratnakara and the Anandakanda [AK\) because its content corresponds more closely to that of earlier eleventh- to thirteenth-century lists than do the latter. We will begin our survey with the Indo-Tibetan lists of the eighty-four Mahasiddhas or Siddhacaryas. Two nearly identical lists are found in the Grub thob,u a mid-fourteenthcentury Tibetan text based on a ca. eleventh- to twelfth-century Sanskrit work attributed to the Indian Abhayadatta; and the A.D. 1275 Sa-skya-bka'l bum,x- which purports to be a list of the gurus who taught at the Saskya monastery between A.D. 1091 and 1275. In these lists, the -pa endings to many names are shortenings of -pada: these endings, rather than the term Siddha, are the authentic mark of the eastern Indian figures and lineages that founded tantric Buddhism. Following what has become a scholarly convention, we will assign numbers to these figures, in accordance with their ordinal placement in these various lists: 1. Lui-pa/Matsyendra 8. Mina-pa 9. Goraksa-pa 10. Caurarigi-pa
81
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy 12. Tanti-pa 16. Nagarjuna 17. Karaha-pa/Kanha-pa 18. Karnari-pa/Aryadeva 30. Kambala-pa/Kamari-pa 46. Jalandhara-pa 64. Carpata-pa 71. Kanthali-pa 72. Kapala-pa 76. Nagabodhi-pa 77. Darika-pa 84. Bhali-pa/Vyali-pa In fact, the names of many of the figures in these lists are identical to those of the authors of the earliest mystic poetry of "Buddhist" tantrism, the so-called Catydpadaa" (composed in Old Bengali in eastern India be fore the twelfth century), as well as of a number of authors whose writings are found in the Sanskrit Sadhanamala, which dates from the same period.'"1 Exceptions to this rule are (9) Goraksa, (10) Caurarigi, (16) Nagarjuna, (64) Carpata, (71) Kanthali, (72) Kapala, (76) Nagabodhi, and (84) Vyali, whose "signatures" are found in neither the Carydpadas nor the Sadhanamala (Na garjuna is the author of two sadhanas in this latter work). A later Tibetan recension of the carya songs, incorporated into the Tanjm; includes works by Ghoraksa (sic), Caurahgi, and Carpata/Carpati not found in the origi nal anthology.'5 Six of these names—Caurahgi, Nagarjuna, Carpati, Kapala, Naga bodhi, and Vyali—figure in another enumeration of Siddhas. These are the lists of the twenty-seven Rasa Siddhas, as such are found in three alchemical works.16 Two of these—a list found in the thirteenth- to fourteenthcentury Rasendra Maiigala [RM\ of Sriman Nagarjuna'7 and a list in the fourteenth-century Rasaratnasamucchaya [RRS] (1.2-4) laJ °f Vagbhatta II18—are nearly identical; whereas a second list, found in both the thirteenth-century Rasaratnakara [RRA] (3.1.66-69) of Nityanatha Sid dha'" and the RRS (6.51-53) [b], differs slightly from the first. Further more, certain recensions of the RRS supply as many as forty additional names (following 1.5) to the original list of twenty-seven: we will call this supplementary list RRS [cJ.-° Figures whose names have already appeared above, in the. Tibetan lists, are given here in italics.
83 Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
Bi
Chapter Four RRA/RRS[b]
RM/RRS[a] 1
i. Adima/Aduma-' 2. Candrasena 3. Larikesa 4. Visarada 5. Kapala/Kapa\\ 6. Mata/Matta 7. Mandavya 8. Bhaskara 9. Surasena/Surasenaka 10. Ratnaghosa/Ratnakosa 11. Sambhu 12. Ekaratna/Sattvika 13. Vahana 14. Indra[da] 15. Gomukha 16. Kambali11 17. Vyadi 18. Nagaijuna 19. Suravida/Surananda 20. Nagabodhi 21. Yasodhara/Yasodhana 22. Khanda 23. Kapalika 24. Brahma/Brahma 25. Govinda 26. Lampaka 27. 1 lari
2. Candrasena 3. Larikesa 22. Sarada
ken Time's rod" found in the HYP (1.5-9). This list is nearly identical to a list drawn up by Caturbhujamisra, a 15th- to 16th-century commentator on the RHT, with the difference that the latter identifies the twenty-four names on his list as Rasa Siddhas. 24 As before, names occurring in Tibetan lists are italicized; those already noted in RRS [b] have their numbering from that list shown in parentheses. mi.5-io[c]
10. Mandavya 12. Surasena 6. Ratnaghosa 20. Sambhu[rloka] 19. Tattvika 4. Naravahana
28. Rasankusa 29. Bhairava ;o. N'andi 31. Svacchandabhairava 32. Manthanabhairava 33. Kakacandlsvara 34. Mahadeva ;>. N'arendra
RRS 1.5-7 [a]
HYP 1.5-9 25
28. Rasarikusa 29. Bhairava 30. Nandi 31. Svacchandabhairava 32. Manthanabhairava 33. Kakacandlsvara 40. Mahadeva 4i.Narendra
4. Bhairava
10. Manthanabhairava 23. Kakacandlsvara 28. Naradeva
36. Ratnakara
1. Vyalacarya 5. Nagiirjuna 7. Surananda 14. Nagabuddhi 8. Yasodhara 15. Khanda 16. Kapalika 25. Govinda 21. Lampata 17. Hara
N i n e names included in the RRA/RRS [b] list do not accord with those found in the RM/RRS [a] list. T h e y are: (3) Subuddhi; (9) Indradyumna; (11) Carpati; (13) Vadava/Agama; 2 ' (18) Kamari/Kamall; (23) Banasura; (24) Munisrestha; (26) Kapila; and (27) Bali. All of these names, however, figure among the forty additional Rasa Siddhas listed in RRS [c]. W e now present the lists of these additional Rasa Siddhas as they occur in the continuation of RRS [a] (1.5-7) and RRS [c], names which, as Vagbhatta II explains, are "names of authors of other alchemical texts." To these, we juxtapose data from another list, that of thirty mahasiddhas "who had bro-
37. I larisvara 38. Korandaka 39. Siddhabuddha 40. Siddhapada 41. Kanthadi 42. Rsyasrriga 43. Vasudeva 43. Kriyatantrasamucchay! 44. Rasendratilaka 45- Bhanukarmerita 46. Pujyapada 47. Knneri 48. Nityanatha 49- Niranjana 50. Carpati (11) 5'-Bindunatha 52-Prabhudeva 53-Vallabha
43-HarIsvara 39. Maithila[hvaya]
i3.Korantaka 11. Siddhirbuddha 15. Siddhipada 12. Kanthadi
35. RsiSrriga 42. Vasudeva 36. Kriyatantrasamucchay! 37. Rasendratilaka Yogi 38. Bhaluki 27. Bhaluka 18. Pujyapada 17. Kanerl 19. Nityanatha 20. Niranjana 16. Carpati 22. Bindunatha 24.[Allama] Prabhu
54- Valakhilya-jna [Balakiryanja]
55- Ghodacoli 56. Tintani
25. Ghodacoli 26. Tintini
8s Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
*4
Chapter Four RRS 1.5-10 [c]
RRS 1.5-7 M
HYP 1.5-9
57.Kalacarya 58. Subuddhi (3) 59. Ratnaghosa (6) 60. Susenaka 6i.Indradyumna(9> 62. Agama(i3) 63. Kamari (18) 64. Vanasura(2 3) 65. Munisrestha (24) 66. Kapila (26) 67.Vali(2 7) Apart from its parallels with the RRS lists, the HYP list also appears to borrow a number of its Siddhas from the Tibetan Grub tbob. To these paral lel lists we also juxtapose data from yet another source, the ca. A.D. 1300 Varnaratnakara (VRA)26 list of seventy-six Siddhas: //)"/> 1.5-0
2.Matsyendra 3.Sabarananda 5.Caurarigi 6. Minanatha 7. Gorakhnath 16. Carpati 21. Kapali 26.Tintini
Grub tbob
VRA-]
1. LuI-pa/Matsyendra
41. Mlna
5. Sabara-pa 10. Caurarigi-pa S. Mill;! pii 9. Goraksa-pa 64. Carpata-pa 17. Kanha-pa
43. Savara 3. Caurariginatha 1. Minanatha 2. Goraksanatha
i3.Tanp-pa 16. Nagarjuna 30. Kamari-pa 46.Jalandhara-pa 77. Darika
5.Tanti-pa 22. Nagarjuna 12. Kamari i9.Jalandhara
31. Carpati 1 ^. Kanha 11. Kapali
9. Dari-pa
The Varnaratnakara further accords with various Rasa Siddha lists in i mention of Carpati, Kapali, Nagarjuna, Kaman—listed above—as well i of (71) Govinda (no. 25 in three lists) and (73) Bhairava (no. 29 in tw lists). The (1) Adima of the RM/RRS [a] list is to be identified with the (1) Adinatha of HYP 1.5: adi denotes origins; Adinatha is therefore the original and divine Rasa Siddha or Mahasiddha: as such he is sometimes identified
with Matsyendranath. The relationship here between Goraksanatha and his guru Minanatha in the two Hindu works listed here is symmetrical to that obtaining between the figures Goraksa-pa (9) and Mlna-pa (8) in the Tibetan Grub thob. This squares, moreover, with the statement made by Goraksa in the second verse of his earliest work, the Goraksasataka, that his guru was Minanatha. It is a later conflation (as in the 15th-century "Sidh Yandanam," below) that identifies Matsyendra (the second Siddha, listed after Adinatha, in the HYP list) or Lui-pa (the first Siddha of the Grub thob list) with Mlna. The identification is a simple one: all three of these names include the term fish. As I will demonstrate, the historical Goraksa or Gor akhnath was a 12th- to 13th-century figure, whereas Matsyendra, his pur ported guru, could not have lived later than the 10th century; it is another figure, named Mlna, who was Gorakhnath's guru. The final two lists to be reproduced here also begin—both logically and chronologically—with Adinatha, the Lord of Beginnings. The first of these is the 14th-century Anandakanda [AK] (I.3.47-5I),-' 7 certainly the longest extant alchemical text, and also the most convoluted in many ways. Behind its complexity, however, we may glimpse a number of Siddha lin eages which it was attempting to decant into a single authoritative list. Of exceptional interest is the fact that it divides its list of twenty-five names into a set of "Nine Naths" and "Sixteen Siddhas." In this, as well as in a number of other unique hathayogic elements found in this, but no other alchemical source, we find ourselves in the presence of a truly syncretic Siddha alchemical tradition. The data it contains will also lead us, in a mo ment, into a second corpus, the myriad lists of the Nine Naths. The list we will juxtapose here with the AK is quite unusual, inasmuch as it purports to constitute a list of the "eighty-four Siddhas"' 8 and "nine yogesvaras (Lords of Yoga)"—but which in fact only lists fifty-six names. This vernac ular work, entitled "Sidh Vandanam" [SV]-9 (Praise of the Siddhas) is rela tively late, given that it mentions the 15th-century Kabir as its fiftieth Sid dha. For purposes of comparison, we juxtapose elements from the HIT list with those of the AK and the SV. We will list the Nine Naths and sixteen Siddhas of the AK list continuously, numbering from 1 to 25. Italics refer to names that also appear in Rasa Siddha lists from earlier sources: <4£ 1.3.90-93
SV1-27
HYP 1.5-9
i./M/'-natha 2. Mlnanath'a/Mulanatha
1. Adinath 2.Machindra 3. Goraksa
1. Adinatha 6. Minanatha 7. Goraksa
3- Goraksa
87
Chapter Four AK 1.3.90-93 4. Koiikanesvara vjfihindhres;! 6. Kanthanlsa 7. Uddlsa 8. Cific[h]inlsvara 9. Cauraiigi 10. Cauraiigi"' 11. Carpata
SV 1-27
HYP 1.5-9
io.Jalandhari 28. Kanthad-pay
11. Kanthadi
27. Cauraiigi
5. Cauraiigi
4. Carpata-ray
16. Carpati 16. Ghodacoli
12. ( i h o i h i c i i l i
13. Ramadvaya 14. Bhola/Bala 15. Govinda-sMha 16. Vyadi ij.Nagaijuna 18. Koranda 19. Surpakarna/Surpadhundhi 20. Muktayl/Duktayl 21. Revana/Renava 22. Kukkurapada 23. Surpapada 24. Kanairika 25. Kiiikinika/Tintini
2. T h e Anandakanda
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
14. Balanath
16. Kodanda
2 3.Kaneri 26. TantanI 30. KapalT 32.KagCand 33.KagBhusand 34. Suranand 35.BhairuNand 36. Savara Nand
17. Kaneri 2 7-Tintini 21. Kapall 2 3. Kakacandesvarl 14. Surananda 4. Bhairava 3. Savarananda
List and Medieval Western Indian Saivism
A number of apparently incongruous names in the AK list may be shown to correspond to names of N a t h Siddhas found in southwestern Indian sources. T h e names Surpakarna ("Shovel Ears") (19) and Surpapada ("Shovel Feet") (23) resemble that of Surpanath who—according to a thirteenth-century inscription from the Nath Siddha monastery of Kadri,
located on the northern outskirts of Mangalore (Karnataka)—would have lived in the early part of that century." According to Maharashtran tradi tions dating from at least the final quarter of the thirteenth century, Revana (21) is listed as one of the Nine Naths. Elsewhere, the Vlrasaivas, who have always been concentrated in southwestern India, revere Revana (or Renuka) Siddha as one of their five great founders. 32 Uddlsa (7) is the name of a work on tantric sorcery"; and Kukkura-pada (22) is a Mahasiddha (no. 34) from the Grub thob list. Other names on this list are found to correspond to those of certain of the eighteen Sittars, the alchemist-physicians of Tamil Nadu.' 4 T h e Sittar lists—of which there exist at least eighteen variants—are infuriatingly het erogeneous. N o two are alike, and any one is likely to include names of Vedic sages (Agastya, Loma Rsi), demons (Pulastya), and nymphs (UrvasT), as well as classical H i n d u gods (Rama, Daksinamurti, Subrahmanian), the divine or semidivine founders of Ayurveda (Dhanvantari), yoga (Patanjali), Advaita Vedanta (Sarikaracarya), and south Indian orthodox Saivism (Idaikkadar, Pambatti, Auvai, Manika Vachagar, etc.), 15 and the odd Euro pean (Yacoppu, i.e., Jacob). In addition to these, however, we also en counter names found in the Anandakanda list: Tirumular (whom the Nath Siddhas call Mulanatha [2a]), Macchendrar ( = Matsyendranatha [2b]); Korakkar Nadhar ( = Gorakhnath [3]), and Koiiganar (Koiikanesvara [4]). One exemplary list of the eighteen Tamil Siddhas' 6 enumerates the follow ing (names from earlier lists are italicized): Nandi (1), Mulanatha (2), Kalaiiganatha (3), Bhoga (4), Konkana (5), Agastya (6), Pulastya (7), Bhusunda (8), Romamuni (9), Dhanvantari (10), Sattaimuni (11), Matsyamuni (12), Kaiiva (13), Pidinakklsa (14), Goraksa (15), Terayar (16), Yuhimuni (17), and Idaikkadar (18). T h e last chapter discussed alchemical lore on the subject of two other recurring names from the Tamil lists, Bogar and Nandi; as was noted, Koii ganar was the disciple of one of these two alchemical gurus. 37 Also worth noting here are the Sittars named Kambali Siddhar (number 15 in the RM/ RRS [a] list); Navanadhar (navanatha, the "Nine Naths"), and Sattainathar (Satyanatha). T h i s last figure, whom Tamil traditions credit with having authored twenty-one alchemical works, is identified by the Nath Siddhas with the historical founder of one of its twelve (modern) subdivisions, as well as with a yogic incarnation of the god Brahma. 38 Adinath, Mulanath, Koiikanesvara (4), and Cincinlsvara (8) belong to another sectarian tradition that interacted with the N a t h Siddhas and Rasa Siddhas throughout this period. T h i s is the pas'cimamndya, the Western
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Transmission. To begin, we find lists in this tradition's fourteenth-century Kubjikanityahnikatilaka and twelfth-century Manthanabhairava Tantra that are structurally identical to that of the AK: that is, they are subdivided into a set of nine and a set of sixteen of teachers. Two consecutive chapters in the SSS, itself an expansion on the Kubjikamata (KM), treat of the Kubjika revelations that were brought down to earth by Adinath (i) and Mulanath (2). That these sources are in some way related is further supported by the fact that the Korikana in Korikan-esvara—the "Lord of Korikana"—is precisely the (western) coastal region in which the Western Transmission claims to have been founded, through the agency of a group called the "Nine Naths."''' In a list of the Nine Naths that probably originates from the Deccan, one of the group is named Korikananath.40 The name CincinTsvara (8) evokes the title of another important West ern Transmission work: this is the Nepali Cincinimatasarasamucchaya, which states in its first verse that the cult of Cincinl was founded by a figure named Siddhanatha. Cincinl ("tamarind") is moreover identified with Kubjika, the goddess whose cult lies at the heart of the Western Transmis sion.41 Siddhanatha is, according to a number of texts, an alternative name for Matsyendranath, whose name is also cited in the Kubjikanityahnikatilaka as one of the appellations of its fifth teacher.4Inasmuch as he stands as the prototypical Siddha, I return to the pivotal figure of Matsyendra throughout this and the next chapter. In addition to having a role within the Western Transmission, Matsyendra is also consid ered to have founded a number of other tantric clans. More than this, he is at once revered as the superhuman intermediary who transmitted—or "brought down" (avatarita) from the divine to the human plane—the orig inal tantric revelation and as the human reformer responsible for having transformed the old Kula tradition into "reformed" Kaulism.45 As such, his principal teaching, the KJiiN, is a watershed for all manner of tantric and Siddha traditions. In this work, Matsyendra describes himself as an adher ent of the sectarian Siddha Kaula, the founder of the YoginT Kaula, and revealer of the (hathayogic) doctrine of Matsyodara ("Fish Belly"). The KJiiN is, in fact, one of the earliest Indian texts to make wide and general use of the term "Siddha"; moreover, it anticipates the hatha yoga of later Nath Siddhas (who also claim Matsyendra as their founder) and contains a wide array of original data on tantric theory and practice. Abhinavagupta singles out "Macchanda Vibhu" (Matsyendra) for praise in the opening lines of his monumental A.D. IOOO Tantraloka^ and incorpo-
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Sources for the Histoiy of Tantric Alchemy
rates Matsyendra's YoginT Kaula cult into the secret ritual of the Trika Kaula virtuosi.45 Elsewhere, Abhinavagupta calls Macchanda the great Kaula master of his age, the kali yuga; and, following earlier scriptural tradition, places Macchanda, together with his consort Kohkana, in the northern quadrant of the Siddha Cakra.*6 In this way as well, Matsyendra may be identified with Korikanesvara (4): he is the lord (isvara) of his con sort Korikana. Now, it happens that both the scriptures of the Western Transmission47 and the early works of Matsyendranath have, for centuries, been extant in Nepal alone. How is it that revelations transmitted at a "Moon Island" (CandradvTpa) or "Moon Hill" (Candragiri) either on the west (the West ern Transmission's Korikana) or east (the YoginT Kaula's Kamarupa) coast of India should now find themselves in a landlocked Himalayan valley? An abundance of local legends explain Matsyendra's "transfer" from Kama rupa to Nepal.48 As for the latter toponym, a geographical explanation is possible: Candragiri is the name of a hill located at the western end of the Kathmandu Valley which was, according to myth, originally flooded, prior to being drained by ManjusrT: this western Moon Mountain would origi nally have been a Moon Island.4" Another probable explanation is of a his torical order. There exist significant medieval links between southwestern and eastern India on the one hand, and Nepal on the other, by which the transplantation of these cults can be explained. From the early twelfth cen tury onwards, the Kathmandu Valley was penetrated first by religious proponents of south Indian Saivism and subsequently by kings from the Deccan region. Following the fourteenth-century Malta restoration, priests from Bengal and the Deccan officiated in temples in the city of Bhaktapur, at the shrine of Pasupatinath, and elsewhere in the Kathmandu Valley."1 A number of Nepali religious institutions and traditions reflect this historical connection, down to the present day.51 A third, esoteric, ex planation for these toponyms will be discussed in chapter eight. Nepal's relative isolation has also fostered the preservation of forms of Hindu tantrism that have long since disappeared from India itself. The Kathmandu Valley remains a "living museum" of both Hindu and Buddhist tantrism, in which carya songs belonging to the same tradition as that of the seventh- through twelfth-century Siddhacaryas continue to be sung at re I igious performances, where the old Western Transmission cult of Kub jika continues to be observed,52 and where hordes of tantric Bhairavas and KalTs continue to receive blood sacrifices on a massive scale.
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3. Excursus: The Nine Naths, the Twelve Panths, and the Historical Gorakhnath
ras?], lord of the Kaulas and leader of the Kula" (sadptiradhipatirnathah kaulisah hdanayakah).^ We have already mentioned a later text belonging to the same tradition: this is the Kubjikanityahnikatilaka, which relates that the clan was founded, in Korikana, by Srinatha, who was accompanied by "twice nine Naths." I le emanated into three Siddhas, who had nine sons whom they made their disciples; from these originated the sixteen dis ciples.54 Two later works place an equally allegorical gloss on the Nine Naths: the Tantraraja Tantra correlates the Nine Naths with the nine bodily orifices,55 while the Tantra Maharnava identifies eight Nath Siddhas with the eight cardinal directions. This latter list places Adinath at the "center" of the Indian universe, in the land of Kuruksetra; a location that would correspond to a widespread Kaula doctrine, which calls the central pitha of its mystic universe the Adipltha.5'' According to the Western Trans mission, the supreme goddess (Para, Kubjika) dwells in a pitha of the same name: radiating out from her are eight other such centers, at each of which is found a Nath through whom she generates her empowering energy.57 Here, the Nine Naths appear to be nothing other than a nonuplication of Matsyendranath: they are the superhuman intermediaries who brought the Western Transmission teachings down to earth.5" In the SSS and the Samvaitarthaprakasa, two other works of the Western Transmission, this group of nine (abstract) Naths is doubled into a set of eighteen Naths or Siddhas. In this light, it is noteworthy that Tamil tradition holds that there were originally nine Sittars, before their number was doubled to eigh teen.59 Finally, the abstract or symbolic becomes merged with the historical in the vernacular Gorakh Upanisad, whose list of the Nine Naths begins with seven stages in an emanatory schema, followed by a set of eight "his torical" Nath Siddhas, of which Matsyendra is the first and Gorakh the
At this point, it becomes necessary, for historiographical reasons, that we trace the origins of the Nath sampradaya or Nath panth, the institu tionalized religious order or sect of the Nath Siddhas. The reason for this is simple. It is entirely impossible to make historical sense of the Nath Siddhas if we fail to separate pre-thirteenth-century legend from postthirteenth-century historical fact. Armed with this interpretive tool, we will be able to neatly bypass such burning nonissues as whether Gorakh nath was originally a Buddhist living in eastern India and at the same time dovetail historical and geographical evidence for a western Indian origin of the Nath Siddhas with data concerning the Rasa Siddhas, such as that found in the AK list. The point I wish to make here is that the Nath sampradaya, a great medi eval changing house for western Indian sectarian Saivism, could not have emerged prior to the late twelfth to early thirteenth century A.D. I will show that this was not a monolithic order, but rather a confederation of groups claiming a similar body of Saiva and Siddha tradition, the basis for whose unity was and remains (1) the identification of the twelfth- through thirteenth-century historical Gorakhnath with earlier historical, legend ary, or divine figures named Gorakh or Goraksa; (2) the retrospective asso ciation of this or some earlier Gorakh—often in the role of guru or dis ciple—with founders of other Siddha or Saiva sects and clans, many of which came to be absorbed into the Nath sampradaya, (3) the transforma tion of the abstract concept of the Nine Naths into a number of quasihistorical lineages; and (4) the continued appropriation, in later centuries, by groups outside the Nath sampradaya, of the names Gorakh and other of the Nine Naths as a means to integrating themselves into that order. We begin our discussion by undertaking a conceptual archaeology of the Nine Naths {navanatba). To date, no scholar has ever doubted that these were ever anything but a group of legendary, if not historical figures. But what we find when we look at the Nine Naths historically is that they were, at least a century prior to their transformation into historical lin eages, an abstract or symbolic category belonging to the Western Trans mission. The earliest veiled reference that we find to this group is found in the Kubjikamata which calls a (presumably divine) Nath the "lord of the nine cakras" {natho navacakresvarah), "founder of all the Siddha [lineages]" (sarvasiddhanam . . . samvyavasthitah), and "governer of the six cities [cak-
last.60
When, however, the aggregate of the Nine Naths came to be identified, some time in the twelfth to thirteenth century, with the legendary or his torical founders of the Nath sampradaya, the "historical" name that headed most lists was that of Matsyendra. If, as many have done,61 we conflate Matsyendra[-nath] with Mlna[-nath] and LuT[-pa] (all three names can be loosely taken to mean "Lord of Fishes"), we find that it is he whose name figures the most frequently (together with Goraksa, Carpati, and Nagarjuna) in the Siddha lists we have compared to this point (six times). Next in frequency are Cauraiigi, Vyadi, Adinath, Tanti / Tintini, Karnari / Kanerl, and Bhairava (five times), followed by Jalandhara, Kanthadl, and Govinda (four times). Of these, the following names appear in all three
9*
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Chapter Four types of Siddha lists—i.e., of the Indo-Tibetan Siddhacaryas, Indian Mahasiddha yogins, and Indian Rasa Siddhas: Matsycndra-Mlna, Goraksa, Nagarjuna, Carpati, Cauraiigi, Tanti / Tintini, Karnari / Kanerl, and Kanthadl. In fact, many of these names correspond to most frequently ap pearing names in the myriad lists of the nine "historical" Nath Siddhas. T h e most commonly occurring names in such lists are (i) Matsyendra, (2) Gorakh, (3) Carpati, (4) Jalandhara, (5) Kanerl, and (6) Cauraiigi. Also figuring in many lists are (7) Nagarjuna, (8) Bhartrhari, and (9) Goplcand (Govinda-candra, who is never identified with Govinda the alchemist). T h e r e exist a seemingly infinite number of permutations on this set of nine, with historical and subsectarian variants abounding. Adinath is often added to head the list, in the role of creator god or demiurge: this is a tradition that dates back at least to the Kulaniava Tantra (6.63), which places him at the head of the divine stream {divyaugha) in its enumeration of the founding Kaula gurus. 62 Furthermore, there are regional variations in the name employed for any given N a t h Siddha: just as Matsyendra can become Mlna; so Nagarjuna can become Nagnath or Arjun Naga; Kanerl either Karnari, Krsnapada, or Kanha; Gorakh Goraksa; Carpati either Karpati or Carpata; Cauraiigi Puran Bhagat; and Jalandhara Hadi-pa. By way of illustrating such variants, I offer four lists of the nine founding Naths, all of which date from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries. In Ben gal, two sources dating from the seventeenth century but harking back to earlier traditions 6 ' provide the following data (in which the ninth Nath is lacking): (1) Adinath (identified with Siva) is the founder of the order; his two disciples are (2) Minanath (Matsyendranath) and (3) Jalandhari-pa (Hadi Siddha); (4) Gorakhnath is the disciple of Minanath; (5) Queen MayanamatI the disciple of Gorakhnath; (6) Kanha-pa and (7) Goplcand the disciples of Jalandhari-pa; and Bail Bhadai (8) the disciple of Kanhapa. According to a thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Maharashtran source, 64 the divine founder of the clan is (Visnu-)Dattatreya, who is the guru of (1) Matsyendranath and (2)Jvalendra (Jalandharanath). Matsyen dra is the guru of (3) Gorakhnath, (4) Carpati, and (5) Revana; while Jvalendra is the guru of (6) Karina-pa (Karnari-pa); (7) Bhartrhari and (8) Goplcand. Gorakhnath is the guru of (9) Gahaninath. T h e third list is found in a ca. A.D. 1400 Telugu text from Andhra Pradesh, the Navanathacaritra of Gaurana, which was written at the behest of the abbot of a Saiva monastery at Srisailam. 65 T h e fourth list is adapted from a ca. sixteenthcentury parampara recorded in the Punjab, 66 which gives the following suc cession: Sakti and Siva (1) initiated Ude (2), second of the N i n e Naths and
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy founder of the Jogi panth. His descendants were two demons, Rudragan and Jalandhar. Descended from Jalandhar, the demon convert and initiate, were Matsyendra (3) and Jalandhari-pa (4). Matsyendra was the guru of Gorakh (5), Arjan Naga (6), and the father and guru of the two Jain tirthamkaras Nlmnath and Parasnath (7). Jalandharl-pa's disciples were Bartrinath (Bhartrhari) (8) and Kanipa (Kanha-pa) (9). 67 Bengal
Maharashtra
Andhra
Punjab
i.Adi 2. Mlna
Matsyendra Jalandhara Gorakh Carpata Revana Karina Bhartrhari Goplcand Gahani
Sivanath Mlna Sararigdhara6* Goraksa Meghnad Nagarjuna Siddhabuddhu Viriipaksa Kanika
Siva Ude (Udaya) Matsyendra Jalandhari-pa Gorakh Arjan Naga Nlm-/Paras-nath Bartrinath Kanipa
3. Jalandhari
4. 5. 6. 7. S. 9-
(iorakh Mayanamati Kanha-pa Goplcand Bail Bhadai
Elsewhere, multiple lists of names of the founders of the twelve "offi cial" subdivisions of the N a t h order {barah panth)—generally disciples of either Matsyendra or Gorakh—often include Bhartrhari, Goplcand, Caur aiigi, Nagnath, and Satyanath (or Satnath). 69 Once again, the lineages of masters and disciples {guruparamparas) of these subdivisions arc useful in dating the origins of the Nath Siddhas as a structured religious order {sampradaya), as opposed to an idealized list of names, a body of legend, or a corpus of literature. All of these data point to a twelfth- to thirteenthcentury western Indian watershed, which witnessed a major realignment of a number of preexisting Saiva religious orders, the creation of a number of new orders, and the appearance of a "canon" of literature on the tech nical and experiential aspects of hatha yoga. T h i s historical convergence lends credence to the notion that a historical figure, named Gorakhnath, actually founded a new religious order—the N a t h sampradaya—-in this period. By way of demonstration, let us look at the suborder of the N a t h sampradaya known as the Vairag panth, which was, according to tradition, founded by Bhartrhari, a thirteenth-century disciple of Gorakhnath. 7 0 T h e current head of this suborder is a householder N a t h named Narayan Nath, whose family compound, in a village named Padu Kala (Meerta City tehsil, Nagaur district, Rajasthan) is attached to a temple containing a dozen
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Sources for tbe Histoiy of Tantric Alchemy
extremely worn burial tumuli (samadhis). These are, according to Narayan Nath, the tumuli of Bhartrhari's immediate disciples, as well as of certain of the twenty-six other Nath Siddhas—most of whom he could name from memory—who had intervened between Bhartrhari and himself as titular leaders of that subsect. If these samadhis do indeed contain the bodily re mains of seven centuries of Nath Siddhas (and they certainly appear to be very ancient), they constitute stronger evidence for the actual institutional existence of this sect than do the lists, legends, and even writings of its purported founders that have come down to us.71 Another piece of archaeological evidence, also from the thirteenth cen tury, is an A.D. 1279 inscription from Karnataka (Jagalur taluka), which records the donation of a village by a general of the Yadava king Ramacandra to a "yogi world-conquerer" {yogi cakravarti) named Prasada Deva. In this inscription, we find what appears to be an enumeration of Prasada Deva's lineage: "Adigadedunatha Caturaraginatha Gorakhanatha Vistaradevi .. . natha Kahalinavi [Kanthadl?] Surppananatha Lonanatha Naranatha pantha." Although no one of the twelve modern subsects of the Nath sampradaya appears to ever have been based in Karnataka, the ancient and prestigious monastery of Kadri, located on "Jogi Hill" on the northern outskirts of Mangalore, is a permanent fixture of Nathdom, and it is the founding lineage of the abbots of this monastery that is recorded in this inscription.72 Located in the monastery precincts at Kadri is a certain Man junatha temple, whose principal image, of Lokanatha, was dedicated in A.D. 968. In the inscription that records that dedication, it is stated that "the image of the god Lokesvara [was placed] in the beautiful vibdra of Kadirika." Now, vibdra is a term that can refer only to a Buddbist mona stery; this, in conjunction with a number of other indices (LokanathaLokesvara's three-faced image conforms with northern descriptions of the Buddhist Avalokitesvara, etc.), indicates that coastal Karnataka and Kadri were Buddhist until shortly before the end of the tenth century. All of this is most interesting, in the context of the ca. twelfth-century Western Transmission legend, related above, which stated that the "Nine Naths" of Koiikana converted from Buddhism to Hinduism after the collapse of their monastery,11 and in light of the fact that Nath Siddha traditions at Kadri maintain that the Manjunatha appeared, in the form of tbe three-faced im age of Lokanatha, to the three Jogi gurus Gorakhnath, Matsyendranath, and Sarriganath. Shrines to these three founders enclose the vihdra-temple of Manjunatha.74 The Kadri monastery is also the venue for a number of Nath legends, and is mentioned by the Italian traveler Pietro della Valle,
who in 1624 visited "the famous hermitage of Cadiri" to see the "Batinate [panthi nath?], called King of the Gioghi [Yogis]."75 It was also on this coast that Marco Polo encountered his "Ciugi" alchemists, in or around the year 1295.
While we can be certain that a historical Matsyendranath lived and wrote at least two centuries before the symbolic Nine Naths begin to ap pear in twelfth-century Western Transmission sources, the notion of nine historical figures who, taken as an aggregate, constituted the Nine Naths probably did not solidify until the foundation, by Gorakhnath, of the Nath sampradaya as an institutionalized religious order, in the twelfth to thir teenth century. Additional datable evidence from this period includes the Maharashtran Jfianesvara's ca. A.D. 1290 reference to Gorakhnath as his guru's guru's guru;76 and a reference in Visobakhecara's thirteenth-century Ghatasthala to the founders of his lineage as Adinath, Mlnanath, and Gorakhnath. This proof is also supported, apophatically, by further evi dence from Maharashtra. Less than a century prior to Jnanesvara, Mukundaraja, the first poet to write in the Marathi medium, gives an account of his lineage in his Vivekasindhu. Adinatha, who founded the lineage, had Harinatha (A.D. 1159-86) for his disciple. Harinatha's disciples were Surendranatha, Bharatlnatha, Janardana, Nagnatha, Visvambharnatha, and Raghunatha—with the last of these being Mukundaraja's guru.77 Here, we are presented with a lineage founded by Adinatha, and in which a large number of individuals whose names end in -natha are figured, but from whose number Gorakhnath is conspicuously absent. Another early Marathi-language work, the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Lila Caritra of Cakradhara Svami, founder of the Mahanubhava sampradaya, also lists number of familiar Nath Siddhas, with the significant omission of Gorakh nath.78 Gorakhnath's appearance, in Jfianesvara's A.D. 1290 Jnanesvari, as the disciple of a semidivine Matsyendra and as Jfianesvara's guru's guru's guru, indicates the appearance of the historical reformer Gorakhnath on the western Indian scene in the late twelfth to early thirteenth century. Additional evidence of the same order may be elicited from an A.D. 1030 inscription from Karnataka (Nelamangala taluka) which commemorates the founding of a Siddhesvara ("Lord of tbe Siddhas") temple there. While this inscription names the Candrapuri ("Moon City") of Western Trans mission tradition, a founding guru named Adinatha, and a number of other figures with names ending in -natha, as well as the orthodox Saiva textual corpus (s'aivdgama), it makes no reference to Gorakh or any one of the "authorized" nine founders the Nath Siddhas:79
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At the foot of a wonderful tree in Candrapuri, [which is] situated in the Western Ocean, Adinatha is installed. By merely recalling his excellent lotus feet, the residual effects of acts commited in past lives are destroyed. His disciple . . . was Chayadhinatha ["Shadow Adina tha." His disciple was Stambhanatba] . . . His son, versed in the meaning of the Kalagama, was the yati Dvlpanatha . . . His disciple was born Mauninatha munipa. The bearer of the latter's commands was Rupasiva [the priest given charge of the temple] . . . devoted to
A significant volume of evidence, then—archaeological, literary, and inscriptional—points to the institutionalization of the Nath sampradaya, via the recognition of Gorakhnath and other figures as its historical founders, in the thirteenth century. What appears to have occurred was the "Gorakhization" of disparate monasteries (Kadri), lineages (the Vairag panth), and even entire religious orders (the Pasupatas and Kapalikas), which became absorbed into this new institutional entity. In the case of the latter two old Saiva orders, an A.D. 1287 inscription from Somnath (Junagadh district, Gujarat), the original homeland of the Pasupata sect, is significant, inas much as we find in it the name of Gorakh appearing together, for the first time, with that of the "Lakullsas" (i.e., of Pasupatas).84 In many ways, the Nath Siddhas appear to be the direct heirs to the Pasupatas and Kapalikas.
the saivagama.
As is common practice, the founder of the Siddhesvara temple traces the lineage of its priest back to the divine founder of his sectarian tradition. As such the greatest historical interest of this guniparampara lies in the fact that it does not mention the traditional "historical" founders of the Nath Siddhas (who figure in the later A.D. 1279 Kadri inscription, from the same region, mentioned above), even as it commemorates the founding of a "Siddha" temple. In this, it supports the proof elicited from the Maharashtran data a moment ago. There were, prior to the thirteenth century, a number of groups, mainly Saiva, who called themselves Siddhas, as well as groups whose founding gurus had the suffix -natha appended to their names. There were, however, no groups calling themselves Siddhas with names ending in -natha who traced their lineage back to a founder named Gorakhnath prior to this time. It is not until the thirteenth century that such specifically "Gorakhnathi" lineages suddenly appear, in at least half a dozen places in western India. It is, moreover, to the same period that the major Sanskrit-language hathayogic works of Gorakhnath, as well as a "canonical" body of vernacu lar mystic poetry—attributed to Gorakhnath and others and written in a mixture of Old Rajasthani (Dihgal), Old Punjabi, Khadl Boll, and Apabhrarhsa—are dated.8" We also find external references to Gorakhnath in (1) the hathayoga section of the Sdrhgadhara Paddhati, a work dating from the thirteenth to fourteenth century;8' (2) the A.D. 1372 foundation of the important Nath monastery at Dhinodara (Kacch district, Gujarat) by Dharamnath;82 and (3) two Kathmandu Valley inscriptions, dating from A.D. 1382 and 1391, left by "a follower of the sect of Gorakha," and by a Yogi named Acintanath.83 Prior to this surge of solid historical data, rein forced by the literary evidence of the thirteenth-century "canon" attrib uted to Gorakhnath, we have little but legend to go on.
Saiva sectarianism in fact begins, some eleven hundred years before the advent of Gorakhnath, with this former order, whose teachings were revealed by Srlkantha or Nllakantha Siva himself to the sect's founder Lakullsa—the "Lord with the Stave"—who hailed from Kayavarohana (the modern Karvan, Baruch district, Gujarat) in the first half of the second century. The Pasupatas were the prototypes of the Saiva ascetic, whose daily "bathing" in ashes, antisocial behavior, sectarian markings, goals of siddhis and bodily immortality, and even an emphasis on "yoga"85 have been passed down to present day Saivites via such sects as the Kapalikas. This latter group, which emerged in the beginning of the first millennium of the common era, constituted the more heterodox, left wing of Saiva sectarianism. Situated at the orthodox end of the Saiva spectrum in this period were the Kalamukhas, mainly based in Karnataka, and the Saiva Siddhantins, who were based in both south (Tamil Nadu in particular) and north (Madhya Pradesh, Kashmir) India. While the Pasupatas and Kapalikas were clearly the forerunners of the Nath Siddhas, and whereas the disappearance of the Kalamukhas more or less coincided with the appearance of the Vlrasaivas in the Deccan, it is the Saiva Siddhantins who have defined mainstream Saiva ritual devotionalism for the past twelve hundred years or more. Saiva Siddhanta was, by the ninth century, the Saiva orthodoxy of both north and south India.8'1 Following this ninth-century watershed, however, a north-south rift developed, with much of Kashmir Saiva metaphysics being propelled in the direction of a nondualist idealist gnoseology by such great theoreticians as Abhinavagupta and the south remaining dualist and more concerned with external practice than in ner realization. Because, however, the Nath Siddhas have historically sub-
?8 Chapter Four
scribed to none of the central tenets or canons of the Saiva Siddhanta ortho doxy—devotion to Siva, external worship, conventional behavior—this important tradition need not concern us further.87 A number of Nath Siddha traditions maintain that there originally ex isted twelve Saiva subgroups—the "Yogis" of the post-Gupta age; i.e. Pasu patas, Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, etc—to which Gorakhnath added another twelve of his own creation.88 These figures are indirectly supported by a list from the relatively recent Sahara Tantra (quoted in the ca. seventeenthcentury Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha) of the "twelve Kapalika_ teachers" and their twelve "disciples." The former list, which is headed by Adinatha, con tains names that hark back to the older Saiva orders: Kala, Karala, Mahakala, Kalabhairava-natha, Vatuka. Bhutanatha, Vlranatha, Srtkantha, etc. In the latter list, of the twelve "disciples" of these teachers, we recognize the names of the traditional founders of a number of the twelve panths of institutionalized Nathdom: Nagnath (or Nagarjuna), Satyanath (or Satnath), Goraksa, Carpata, Vairagya (Bhartrhari), Kanthadharl (Kanthadl), Jalandhara, etc.89 Nath Siddha tradition further maintains that the twelve Saivite orders and the twelve Gorakhnathi orders battled one another, with all but six of each of the two groups being destroyed. These twelve surviving orders were confederated by Gorakhnath to form the twelve original panths of the Nath sampradaya.90 All of these twelve original subsects were based in Saivism's ancient heartland, i.e., the northwestern part of the Indian sub continent (Gujarat, Punjab, Sind. Rajasthan), with one group, the Rawals or Nagnathis, having its base in Afghanistan.91 This configuration or con federation has changed over the centuries: twentieth-century enumera tions of the twelve panths base two of these in Bengal, one in Orissa, one in Nepal, and one (the important Gorakhpur monastery) in Uttar Pradesh.92 The emergence of the Nath Siddhas or Nath sampradaya was probably of a less dramatic order than that described in this legend. Its coalescence, both prior and subsequent to the institutional organization founded by Gorakhnath, was more likely a gradual process, catalyzed by the itinerant lifestyles of India's sadhus and the oral communications network they have always maintained at the many pan-Indian pilgrimage sites they have fre quented over the past seven centuries. The end result of this process was the loose confederation of lineages that is today known as the barah panth, a hydra-headed group with no single leader,9' which holds general assem blies of sorts on the occasions ot major religious festivals (for example, at the kumbha melas at Hardwar anJ Allahabad)."4 The term panth, "path," is
99
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a significant one here; one who belongs to A panth is apanthi, a "path-taker," and an itinerant lifestyle has long been the hallmark of the Nath order. For our purposes, it is most important to note that the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Gorakhnath, while he was a reformer, innovator, and systematizer, did not innovate either the techniques of hathayoga or the Nath sampradaya out of whole cloth. There was already something there: an em bryonic hathayogic tradition, a body of legend in which there already figured a Siddha or Vidyadhara named Goraksa or Gorakh, and several religious or ders and sects, some of whose adherents were already calling themselves "Nath" or "Siddha" before Gorakhnath appeared on the scene.95 While such may, at first blush, appear to be overly facile, we may quite safely characterize the emergence of the Nath Siddhas as a marriage be tween Naths (i.e., Saiva groups—Pasupatas, Kapalikas, and Saktas—for whom Siva had long been called Nath, "Lord") and Siddhas (Mahesvara and Rasa Siddhas and Sittars, as well as the Buddhist Siddhacaryas)96 which took the institutionalized form of the Nath sampradaya. Starting in this period, all manner of preexisting Saivite and Siddha clans, lineages, or sects would have funneled themselves into the Nath suborders or have been identified as Nath Siddhas by outside sources. In addition to groups al ready mentioned, we also find the Vaisnava Avadhuta sampradaya (founded by Dattatreya),"7 Dasnami Nagas, Jains, Sufi Muslims, and a group of snake charmers claiming allegiance, in the fourteenth and later centuries, to one or another of the twelve subsects.98 By claiming descent from Gorakh or Matsyendra, or some other founding Nath Siddha, these various groups grafted themselves onto what they considered to be a past with a future.''" It appears that, from the outset, there have always been more candidates for the twelve "slots" than there have been panths, which has made for a protean aggregate."10 Indeed, even the correct name for members of the aggregate I have been blithely referring to as the Nath Siddhas is a matter of disagreement. Other terms include: Yogi or Jogi, which is both too broad a term, covering as it does all manner of itinerant sadhus, including certain of the historical forerunners of the present order,"" and too pejorative, since Jogi has long been the name of a scheduled caste in India;'"' Kanphata ("split-eared") Yogi, which applies to the sectarian marking of some, but not all, cenobitic members of this order, who wear great earrings (kundalas, mudras, darsanas) through the thick of their ears, which are bored open upon full initiation; Gorakhnathi, which evokes the name of the founder or reformer of the institutional order (however, many suborders trace their lineage back to Matsyendra or Jalandhara, and not Gorakh, and those who
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claim descent from Jalandhara generally eschew the kundala earrings, even upon full initiation, and call themselves "Aughars," rather than "Kanphatas" or "Darsanis");103 and Nath Panthi or Nath Sampradayi, which appear to be overly institutional in their emphasis. If we are to judge from recent publications coming out of the important Gorakhpur monastery, Nath Siddha, the term I employ, is the term most favored by the leadership of the order itself.104 This is also a term that ac knowledges the historical Saiva and Siddha roots of the sect, roots evoked in the Yogabtja of Gorakhnath, which evokes both the siddha-mata (Siddha doctrine), and the natha marga (Nath path).105 It also acknowledges the fact that most adherents to this sect suffix their names with -nath.106 Having said this, we must allow that the reality of the situation cannot be decanted into the neat typologies I have been attempting to generate here. So it is that we find, under the umbrella heading of Nath Siddha, Nath sampraddya—or any of the other alternatives enumerated—notions of both sect and subcaste (especially among the large communities of householder Naths found scattered throughout north India) and a wide array of lineage claims, as well as variations in dress, vows, devotional worship, and forms of behavior that appear to be both regional and sectarian in origin.107 At this point, let us return to the AK list, which was the point of depar ture for this long excursus on the sectarian origins of the Siddhas. Our hypothesis—that the Nath sampradaya emerged in the early thirteenth century as a great medieval changing house of Saiva and Siddha sectarian ism—is supported by this source. Here, our thirteenth-century terminus ante quern is clearly demonstrated by the fact that no alchemical source prior to the fourteenth-century AK lists the "Nine Naths," including Gorakh (whose name it sanskritizes to Goraksa), in its Rasa Siddha lists. In the final analysis, the myriad Siddha lists of eleventh- to fifteenth-century In dia provide us with the pool of names, mystic disciplines, and sectarian orientations that would come to funnel themselves into the Nath order, confederated in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century by the western Indian reformer Gorakhnath. This order, which inherited the techniques of tantric alchemy from the Rasa Siddhas, would transform that discipline into what we have termed Siddha alchemy, the melding of external alchemy with internal hathayogic practice, as such was taught by the tenth-century Matsyendra and systematized by the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Gorakh. It is in this sense that all manner of medieval Indian traditions have been quite correct in their retrospective identifications of the Nath Siddhas with the tantric alchemists, the semidivine reveaiers or transmitters of
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
Saiva and Sakta traditions,10" as well as with the seventh- to twelfth-century founders of tantric Buddhism, known as the Mahasiddhas or Siddhacaryas.
4. Sorting Out the Siddhas While the Nath Siddhas have left us burial tumuli and a living (though perhaps not thriving) institutional order—in which disciples are initiated by gurus, often in a monastic setting, within the barah panth structure—all that the Rasa Siddhas have bequeathed us are lists of names and a corpus of alchemical literature. Just as there are no gurus initiating disciples into alchemical orders or lineages today,10*' we can be quite certain—in spite of the Rasa Siddha lists and scattered references one finds to the Rasesvara doctrine (dars'ana, mata), or to alchemical initiations of disciples by gurus—that there never were institutionalized orders of alchemists in me dieval India. This is supported in the classic RA, which, like a number of other al chemical sources, discusses alchemical gurus, disciples, and initiation, but which simply states, on the subject of lineages, that the guru should be "devoted to the kula-marga" and "the member of a true order (satsampradayin)!'uo More significant is its contention (1.27) that "to those who say this [alchemical] order {sampradaya) is not a 'womb,' it is maintained that mercury is a 'womb.'" 1 " In the context of tantric doctrines according to which initiation into an order, i.e., a clan, consists in partaking of the "clannectar" that streams from the womb of the Goddess, this statement is a defense of the fact that the medieval alchemists were "biologically" linked through initiation, even if theirs was not an institutionalized sect. Quick silver entrepreneurs, they took their initiation directly from Siva. This squares with the rare autobiographical data the alchemical authors offer in their own writings, which indicate that these figures were attached to royal courts, rather than to any monastic or religious order. The mercury-eating regular and secular orders about which Marco Polo and Francois Bernier wrote belonged to "Yogi" (i.e., Siddha alchemical), and not Rasa (i.e., tantric alchemical) lineages. At this point, we must clarify the position of yet another Siddha tradi tion, an aggregate that overlaps many of the other Siddha groups I have been discussing. This is a group called the Mahesvara Siddhas. As their name indicates, this group defines itself by its devotion to Siva, the Great Lord {mahesvara); and in fact nearly every Saiva sect, school, or institu-
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tion—the Pasupatas, Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, Saiva Siddhantins, and Vlrasaivas (or Lirigayatas)—has called itself or been called Mahesvara."2 Ety mology and logic would then lead one to conclude that the term mahesvara siddha ought to apply to any mystic devotee of Siva Mahesvara who has perfected {siddha) himself through his practice. The specific use of the term is more restricted, however, and relates directly to our subject. The Mahesvara Siddhas were, generally, alchemists who did not seek bodily im mortality (jivanmukti) as the final goal of their practice, but rather aspired to another sort of liberation (pardmukti). Rather than a perfected (siddhadeha) or adamantine {vajradeha) physical body, the Mahesvara Siddhas' goal was a divine body (divyadeha) of a more ethereal, even incorporeal nature. At times, one has the impression that the Mahesvara alchemists (the au thors of the Rasahrdaya Tantra [RHT] and Rasopanisat [RU] are examples)
were seeking the same sort of liberation {moksa) that nearly all mainstream Hindus aspire to—i.e., the absorption of the individual soul {atman) into the absolute {brahman)—and that their alchemy was merely a means to prolonging the lives of bodies within which their hearts and intel lects could discover their innate unity with the universal essence. Such is also the purport of the "Rasesvara Darsana" chapter of Madhavacarya's fourteenth-century Sarvadars'ana Samgraha, which opens with the state ment: "Other Mahesvaras there are who, while they hold to the identity of self with Paramesvara, insist upon the principle that the liberation in this life taught in all the systems depends upon the stability of the body, and therefore celebrate the virtues of rasa . . . as a means for stability of the body." As minister to King Bukku I (A.D. 1356-77) of Vijayanagara (mod ern Hampi, Bellary district, Karnataka), Madhavacarya identified what he termed the "revealed system of the Lord of Mercury" with the doctrines of the Mahesvara Siddhas, who were active there in his time. 1 " This emphasis differs radically from that of both the Nath Siddhas and the RA, whose powerful rhetoric regarding the this-worldly nature of bodily liberation will be discussed in chapter six."4 In practical terms, the alchemy of the Mahesvara Siddhas was more therapeutic than transmutational, for which reason it funneled directly into south Indian Siddha medicine. In certain sources, the distinction be tween this group and the Rasa or Nath Siddhas is cast in more subtle terms, with the distinction between vihiddha-maya and maba-maya categories be ing emphasized. A legend from a Vlrasaiva source illustrates the difference between the two sectarian and philosophical perspectives. Gorakhnath and Allama Prabhu (also known as Prabhudeva, no. 52 in the RRS [c] list) have
I O ,
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a siddhi contest. When Allama Prabhu takes a sword to Gorakh, its blade shatters on his adamantine body; when Gorakh does the same to Allama Prabhu, it passes through his body, which is wholly ethereal. Allama Prabhu then chides Gorakh, saying that such bodily density is merely the mark of a density of illusion."5 Another Vlrasaiva source maintains that it was Allama Prabhu who initiated Gorakh and Nagarjuna into the alchemi cal arts at Srisailam. Yet the same Allama Prabhu (and he was not alone in this) scorns Gorakh and the Nath Siddhas for the "this-bodily" emphasis of their alchemy."6 We may therefore conclude that while all or some of the Mahesvara Siddhas may have been alchemists, and while certain of the Vlrasaivas may have even been itinerant alchemists, they were not al chemists of the same stripe as the Nath Siddhas, the Siddha alchemists of medieval India. The Mahesvara Siddhas were concentrated in the Deccan and western coastal region of India." 7 As noted, a Siddhesvara temple was dedicated, in A.D. 1030, in coastal Karnataka. Several centuries earlier, a number of temples to Siva Siddhesvara were constructed in the Srisailam region of Andhra Pradesh, in the Deccan." 8 Elsewhere, architectural or archaeologi cal data provide us with very few clues to the history of tantric alchemy. The Visnudharmottara Parana, a ca. eighth-century Kashmiri text that is most attentive to the iconography and plastic reproduction of divine im ages, contains descriptions of mercurial preparations used to coat stone sculptures and thereby increase their resistance to the elements." 9 The al leged presence of mercury and other elements in a number of metal images from the Buddhist monastic university complex at Nalanda (Bihar) would indicate that alchemy was part of its curriculum prior to its destruction in the twelfth century.120 A ca. twelfth-century sculpted image, dominating the southern facade of the sikhara of the Menal (Mahanadakala) temple in the Bhilwara district of southeastern Rajasthan is said to be a representa tion of Siva Rasesvara.121 In Malaysia, the foundations of a twelfth- to thirteenth-century Siva temple containing a mercurial liiiga and other alchemically prepared elements are evidence for the spread of medieval Hindu alchemy to greater India.122 This paucity of hard evidence and a plethora of mythic references have spawned a number of wild hypotheses concerning the origins and chronol ogy of Indian alchemy. A persistent theory has it that the Muslim conquests drove the Buddhist alchemists in residence of such intellectual centers as Nalanda (Nalanda district, Bihar) south into the Deccan or up into the northern perimeter of the subcontinent, where they converted to Hindu-
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ism or took on Hindu disciples. According to this theory, the great works of Hindu tantric alchemy would have issued from this diaspora, in such far-flung places as Bhutan, Srisailam, Devagiri (the capital of the Yadavas, in present-day Maharashtra), and Junagadh (Gujarat). A parallel theory, dear to historians of medieval Hindu sectarianism, maintains that the Nath Siddhas were originally a group of Buddhists who apostasized in the face of the Muslim invasions in order to continue their tantric practices. Both theories, attractive as they may appear as explanations for the medieval emergence of the Rasa Siddhas and Nath Siddhas respectively, are seri ously flawed. Through the compounding of a scholarly error, first promulgated by Prafulla Candra Ray123 in 1903, and later amplified by Sylvain Levi, Jean Filliozat, and Mircea Eliade,1-4 it has been standard practice, in the histori ography of Indian alchemy, to identify a work, attributed to Nagarjuna and entitled Rasaratnakara (RRA), as India's primal and primordial alchemical classic. However, in an article written in 1983, Dominik Wujastyk125 proved that the so-called RRA of Nagarjuna was a conflation of three sepa rate texts: the RRA of Nityanatha, and the RM and Kaksaputa Tantra (KPT), both authored by Nagarjuna. The youngest of these three works, the RM, a derivative source which borrows extensively from other Hindu alchemical tantras, is a thirteenth- to fourteenth-century work. It is unique, however, in its dramatic presentation of a portion of its data (most of its fourth chap ter, which it shamelessly cribs from the RAY1'' in the form of a dialogue, atop Srisailam, between the Madhyamika philosopher Nagarjuna, the Bud dhist goddess Prajnaparamita, King Salivahana,127 ayaksini haunting a sa cred fig tree, and a host of mainly Buddhist luminaries, including Ratnaghosa, Surasena, and Nagabodhi. A smattering of Buddhist terminology completes the tableau, leaving the superficial impression that the Nagar juna who authored the RM was the same figure as the Nagarjuna who had received the Perfection of Wisdom teachings a millennium earlier. In spite of the fact that this text is in every other respect a straightfor ward Hindu alchemical Tantra, which terms mercury harabJja (the seed of Hara, i.e., Siva), and invokes Saiva gods, goddesses, and tantric practices, Ray finds in its fourth chapter proof positive that "the Rasaratnakara [sic] seems to us to be a typical production representing the Mahayanist period of intellectual activity and we may not be wide of the mark if we put down 7th or 8th century A.D, as its latest date." From here, Ray passes from the specific to the universal: "From the 5th to the n t h century A.D. the col leges in connection with the monasteries of Pataliputra, Nalanda, Vikra-
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maslla, Udandapura, etc., were the great seats of learning . .. and alchemy was included in the curricula of studies." Therefore, Ray concludes, most of the early alchemical tantras were Buddhist.128 Later, in a very ambigu ously worded passage, Ray notes that the (then) recently discovered Knbjikamata "presupposes the existence of other schools and we have the distinct mention of the Mahayana"; then, vaguely citing Shastri's Catalogue, he quotes a passage from this work in which "Siva himself speaks of parada (mercury) as his generative principle and eulogises its efficacy when it has been killed six times."12" The Sanskrit, which he gives in a footnote, is nowhere to be found in Shastri's description of the Kubjikamata, nor have I been able to locate it in the manuscript which Ray claims was Shastri's source (NNA MSS no. 1-285 ka). Yet, Ray's confabulations have been duly reiterated by scholars, including me, throughout the twen tieth century.1'" In addition to the western scholars cited above—who accepted the Bud dhist cachet of Nagarjuna's "Rasaratnakara" as authentic, and who thereby subscribed to the theory that the foundations of Hindu tantric alchemy were Buddhist—P. V. Sharma, India's most respected historian of Ayurveda, is clearly following Ray when he states that when, due to the 12 th century advance of [Muhammad] Bakhtyar Khilji, the universities of Nalanda and Vikramaslla were deserted, their scholars and scientists fled, some to Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, and others to south India—most especially to Devagiri, where they took refuge in the courts of the Yadava kings . . . In south India, rasa sastra continued to develop under the custodianship of the Siddhas [Sittars]. The Siddhas are said to have been eighteen in number . .. They have been dated to the 10th century and after.1" In spite of the fact that the Muslim scholar Alberuni himself maintained that the invasions of his own patron, Mahmud of Ghazni, was the cause for the flight from western India of "the Hindu sciences,"152 a number of data militate against this hypothesis. The first of these is the absence of any extant medieval Buddhist alchemical works outside of the Kalacakra and Tibetan Nying-ma traditions. 1 " Once one allows that the RM and RHT were not Buddhist works, and when one takes into account the fact that the Tibetan Tanjur—which seemingly incorporated every extant Buddhist text into its voluminous mass—contains only four alchemical works, of which none bears a clearly Buddhistic stamp, one begins to wonder who the armies of university-trained Buddhist alchemists were who flocked
u,6
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to the Himalayan kingdoms, the Deccan, and Tamil Nadu. Elsewhere, Sharma musters ample evidence to prove that the Yadavas of Devagiri were indeed great patrons of the alchemical arts." 4 Yet, as he himself demon strates, on the basis of solid historical evidence, the Yadavas' twelfth- and thirteenth-century alchemist proteges were a highly mobile group. Bhaskara circulated between Kashmir, south India, and Devagiri; his son Sodhala between Devagiri and Gujarat (where Muslim penetration had begun in the closing years of the tenth century); and so on.'" One does not have the impression that the Hindu scholars of this period were huddling in I Iindu refuges from Islam; why would the Buddhists have done so? Moreover, there is good evidence that I lindu physicians and al chemists were welcomed into the courts of Muslim princes whose thirst for immortality, increased virility, and the philosopher's stone would have been stronger than their religious fervor.'36 Finally, we know that Muslim physicians, alchemists, and mystics were avid for the wisdom of their In dian counterparts, as evidenced by the translation, in the sixteenth century, of a treatise on hatha yoga, attributed to Goraksa, entitled the Amrtakunda (The Pool of Nectar)." 7 Some time prior to the seventeenth century, it may have been a Bengali Muslim, Sheikh Fayzulla, who glorified the ex ploits of Gorakh, Matsyendra, and other Nath Siddhas, in his Goraksa (or Gorakha) Vijay.1™ Elsewhere, the venerable and powerful Nath monastery at Goraksanath Tilla (Jhelum district, Punjab, Pakistan) has been a center of Hindu-Muslim syncretism since a very early date." 9 Finally, as we indi cated on the opening page of this book, at least one highly placed Mus lim—the fanatically anti-Hindu Mogul emperor Aurangzeb—was still petitioning the Nath Siddhas for their alchemical expertise well into the seventeenth century. Theories concerning relations between the Nath Siddhas and Buddhists in the period of the Muslim conquest bear a certain resemblance to those I have reviewed on the subject of India's alchemists, with a number of scholars maintaining that certain of the founders of the Nath sampradaya were originally Buddhists hailing from eastern India.'40 Such theories gen erally take the Siddha lists as their starting point. Seven of the figures whose names most frequently occur in enumerations of the nine "histori cal" Naths—Matsyendra (Lul-pa; Mina), Goraksa, Cauraiigi, Nagarjuna, Kaneri (Kanha-pa; Kanipa; Karnari), Jalandhara (Hadi-pa), and Carpati (Carpata)—figure in the Buddhist Siddhacarya lists. In addition, a number of scholars evoke the "Buddhist" terminology (sunya, sahaja, etc.) employed
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in the poetry and technical works of the Nath Siddhas to indicate that the "origins" of the Nath Siddhas were something other than Saiva.'4' Armed with this data, writers since at least the time of Taranatha, the Tibetan author of the A.D. 1608 History of Buddhism in India,'*2 have ad vanced all manner of argument to demonstrate the following thesis: that due to the similarity between names of Siddhacaryas and many of the nine founding Nath Siddhas beginning with Lul-pa (who was one of the found ers of the Siddhacarya lineage) and Matsyendra[nath]),'4i and because Lulpa and other early Siddhacarya figures (including Kanha-pa and Jalandarlpa) authored a number of the pre-twelfth-century Caryapadas, which were written in Old Bengali, some or all of the Nath Siddhas, whose legendary founding guru was named Matsyendra, were originally Buddhists based in eastern India, who abandoned the faith as a means to escaping Muslim persecution in the first half of the thirteenth century. Taranatha does not mince his words: "At that time, most of the Yogi followers of Gaurksa [Goraksa] were fools; driven by the greed for money and the honour of fered by the tirthaka [Hindu] kings, they became the followers of Isvara. They used to say 'we are not opposed even to the Turuskas [Turks, i.e., the Muslims].""44 To be sure, certain of the Siddhacarya guruparamparas, as preserved in both the Caryapadas and Tibetan sources, parallel data on the original Nath Siddhas found in pre-seventeenth-century Bengali sources.14S So, for example, in carya song no. 11, Kanha-pa calls himself a "Kapalika" disciple of [alandharl-pa, and mentions the unstruck sound (anahata) and the wear ing of earrings (kundala) that are hallmarks of Nath Siddha theory and practice.14'' It is also significant that the Nath Siddha lineage (pantha) founded by Jalandhara is the sole lineage in which initiates' names are suf fixed with -pa or -pada, rather than -nath; and that the -pa suffix is em ployed only by Naths or Siddhas in the eastern part of the subcontinent: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Nepal, and Tibet.147 While there is no ex plicit legend on this subject in the Grub thob (which, it must be recalled, is a mid-fourteenth-century translation of an eleventh- to twelfth-century Sanskrit source), a legend concerning the Siddhacarya Cauraiigi (Siddha carya no. 10)—who is dismembered after being falsely accused by an evil stepmother—does bring a cowherd (go-raksa) into play, who is instrumen tal in restoring Caurarigi's limbs. The sole figure to be identified as a yogin in this account is, however, Mina-pa (no. 8), and not Goraksa (no. 9). Later, in Taranatha's seventeenth-century work, it is Goraksa rather than Cau-
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raiigi who is the dismembered and restored yogin.MB Finally, the existence in eastern India of large "Jogi" and "Kapalika" subcastes is marshaled as evidence for a mass apostasy, from Buddhism to Hinduism (and thence to Islam!), that would have been led by "Gorakhnath."'^ However, just as laranatha gets Goraksa's legend wrong, so too he and scholars who follow him are wrong when they attempt to make Nath Siddhas out of those seventh- to twelfth-century A.D. Buddhist Siddhacaryas who were based in eastern India. First, while there were indeed Vajrayana figures named Goraksa, LuT-pa, Kanha-pa, Jalandhara-pa, and so on, their writings, as preserved in the Tanjur, are either clearly Buddhist or heavily indebted to Hindu sources.150 Second, it makes no sense that Goraksa—if he lived, as the Grub thob says he did, in the time of the ninth-century king Gopala151—would have had to have led his mass conversion of Buddhist Siddhas to I Iinduism some four hundred years prior to the Muslim con quest (1256-60) of Bengal! In fact, there are no extant Bengali works by anyone named Goraksa or Gorakh and no tradition whatsoever of there ever having been a Bengali Siddha author named Goraksa. A very short work on the physiology of the subtle body, attributed to Ghoraksa (or Ghorakha, but not Goraksa, i.e., Siddhacarya no. o), is included in volume 21 of the Tanjur.*'2 This work, included in the "Tantra" section of the Tanjur, may date from as late as the fourteenth century, as might a number of carya songs attributed to the same author, found in the same source. The Amrtakunda, attributed to a certain Goraksa from Kamarupa (Assam), cannot be dated prior to the late sixteenth century, ' " and Bengali literary versions of the Goraksa Vijay postdate fifteenth-century Nepali and Maithili versions of the same by at least two centuries. If these data constitute proofs for the existence of a pre-thirteenth-century "historical" Goraksa in eastern India, it nonetheless remains the case that the contents of these two works in no way resemble the hathayogic summa of Gorakhnath (even if this figure's name is sanskritized to "Goraksanatha" in these works). The existence of a ninth- to eleventh-century eastern Indian Goraksa is unproven; a more likely scenario would have the works of the twelfth- to thirteenth-century western Indian Gorakhnath being transmitted back to Bengal and attributed to a Bengali Goraksa in the thirteenth through four teenth centuries. Prior to this thirteenth-century watershed, the sole Goraksa in Bengal or eastern India would have been a Siddha demigod worshipped by cow herds for the protection of their livestock, with no connection to the his-
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torical author and reformer Gorakh. Indeed, he is portrayed as a cowherd in his Grub thob legend.154 This figure may well have been "Buddhicized" into a Vajrayana deity in the northeastern Indian subcontinent: three juxta posed images in a monastery in Sikkim are identified as the divine Buddha Amitabha, the human founder Gautama Buddha, and Goraksanatha!'■" Another striking piece of evidence comes from Gorakhpur, where Gorakhnath . . . discovered at the site of the present [Gorakhnath] temple a shrine sacred to the god Gurakh or Gorakh, who appears to have been a deity of great fame in the Nepal country; and having devoted himself to the service of this deity, practiced the greatest aus terities. He . . . took the name of Gorakhnath or servant of Gorakh. Shortly after his death . . . members of the [ruling Satasi] family es tablished] themselves near the shrine, from which the town they founded took the name of Gorakhpur.1"' I have already noted that images of Goraksa were being worshipped from an early date at both Kadri and Somnath. Flsewhere, the sixteenthcentury alchemical Rasakaumudl (3.50) prescribes the worship of the Nine N'aths. The worship of a semidivine Gorakh or Goraksa, as well as of many other Nath Siddhas, remains widespread in India and Nepal down to the present day. To conclude: since no extant tantric or Siddha alchemical works, either Hindu or Buddhist, emerged out of Bengal prior to the thirteenth century, we need not concern ourselves any further with the imagined east Indian Buddhist origins of Gorakhnath or the Nath Siddhas.157 Flsewhere, the Nath Siddhas were, more than any other medieval Hindu sect, most ame nable to syncretism with Islam. Many are the Nath Siddhas who are known as "Guru" or "Nath" by their Hindu devotees and "Pir" by Muslims. The Bauls of Bengal are a prime example of such a phenomenon: they are often Muslims who revere Gorakh and other Nath Siddhas, and whose sung po etry curiously resembles that of the Buddhist Mahasiddhas.158 The promi nent place occupied by Jogls in Indian Sufi hagiography is a further indica tion of this syncretism, a subject that is only now beginning to receive the scholarly attention it deserves.159 The volume of legend surrounding Gorakh, Matsyendra, Kanha, Goplcand, Bhartrhari, Carpati, Caurahgi, and the other major Nath Siddhas is so massive as to constitute an entire field of study in itself. The names of these traditional founders, common enough to begin with, have over the centuries
t IC)
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been constantly reappropriated in such a way as to generate a plethora of figures with the same names and often the same gurus and disciples, but liv ing in different centuries, under different kings, and in different regions of India. Our discussions of the historical and legendary data pertaining to the major Nath Siddhas will therefore be limited to those cases which serve to trace the history and doctrines of tantric and Siddha alchemy."'"
5. Western India: The Heartland of Tantric and Siddha Alchemy As soon as we turn away from Buddhism and eastern India and towards Saivism and the west of the subcontinent, the alchemical trail suddenly becomes hotter. I have already noted that all of the original twelve panths of the Xath order were based in western, and especially northwestern, In dia.16' As I will show, nearly all the historical data we have at our disposal indicate that the medieval alchemists, too, were centered in western India, although further to the south than the Nath Siddhas' original haunts. However, as already noted, the Nath Siddhas were also an important pres ence at Kadri in Karnataka; and we know too that their well-traveled net work of sacred pilgrimage sites also drew them north into the Himalayas and as far south as Srisailam. In broad terms, the geographical area of con vergence between the medieval Nath Siddhas and Rasa Siddhas covers a region roughly corresponding to the modern Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. a. Srisailam Our survey begins, however, with Srisailam, perhaps the same site as the Sriparvata of Buddhist fame around which an early body of alchemical lore concerning Nagarjuna coalesced. As already mentioned, from the seventh century onwards, a number of temples were dedicated, on or around this peak, to Siva Siddhesvara. Already mentioned in the sixth-century Vasavadatta (together with the goddess Tara and the element mercury) as a site at which liberation could be realized, Srisailam was portrayed, in descriptions from two thirteenth- to fourteenth-century I Iindu alchemical sources, as an alchemical wonderland.'" It was also a center for the Pasupatas, Kapalikas, and Kalamukhas, three sects that rode the wave of Saivism that swept Bud dhism out of western and southern India, from the seventh century onwards. Indeed, it was these sects that controlled Srisailam down to the twelfth cen-
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
tury, at which time they were supplanted or absorbed there by the Vlrasaivas who, under the leadership of Basava, were emerging as an important south India sect, in much the same fashion as were the Nath Siddhas further to the north.' 65 The jyotirlinga named Mallikarjuna, the heart of the Saiva cultus at Srisailam, was reconsecrated there by the Vlrasaivas.164 Following Banabhatta's seventh-century description of the hydrargyriasic south Indian Saiva ascetic who, in his mercury-provoked delirium, recounted "thousands of wonderful stories about Sriparvata," we also en counter references to Kapalikas from Srisailam in Bhavabhuti's eighthcentury Mdlati Madhava and Ksemlsvara's tenth-century Candakaus'ika. The former of these is also important inasmuch as it contains the earliest extant Indian literary reference to the yogic physiology of the six cakras and the ten nadis; in the latter drama, the Kapalika hero is cast as a divi nized alchemist.165 Following the twelfth-century advent of Vfrasaivism, alchemical references to Srisailam multiply. The Viramahesvaragama main tains that Gorakhnath was schooled in alchemy, by a Mahesvara Siddha, on the shore of the Tungabhadra River. He, in turn, taught what he had learned to Rasesvara Siddhas in the "Antarvedl" region of Maharashtra.166 According to the sixteenth-century Telugu Prabhidingalila of Pidapatti Somanatha Kavi, Gorakhnath and Nagarjuna were both initiated into the al chemical art by the Vlrasaiva teacher Allama Prabhu at Srisailam itself.167 The Tamil Sittars echo the same tradition, tamilizing Gorakh's name to "Korakkar"; and adding that Nagarjuna established a transmuting (sparsavedht) linga of Siva there.168 According to a work by the Sittar Koriganar, Korakkar had an animated mercurial pill called "bogi" [bhogi?] which, when he held it in his mouth, afforded him the power of flight.16'' He was the author of a work entitled Korakkar Malai Vagatam (Korakkar's Moun tain Medicines), the lore of which he collected during his life in the Deccan region.170 Perhaps influenced by earlier Buddhist traditions, Nityanatha Siddha— who was very likely a Nath Siddha—states in his RRA that Nagarjuna set up an alchemical laboratory on Srisailam.171 The A.D. 1400 Navanathacaritra of Gaurana indicates that Gorakh attained yogic bliss (yogananda) in a cave near a subterranean stream of the Ganges River, somewhere below the sacred peak.172 The same source has Nagarjunanath teaching his son, Siddha Nagarjuna, the "gold-making" siddhi at Srisailam. When the young alchemist sets about to transmute the entire mountain into gold (in an ob vious retelling of accounts of the alchemist Nagarjuna of Buddhist legend) his experiments are halted by Visnu.173 Here, the alchemical trail from Sri-
I 12
Chapter Four sailam ends. What is most troubling is the fact that there exists no hard evidence—geological, chemical, archaeological, or epigraphical—to indi cate that mercurial alchemy was ever practiced at Srisailam!174 Inasmuch, however, as it was a hub of Saiva activity, prior to and following the advent of the Vlrasaivas (whose links with the Mahesvara Siddhas were strong), Srisailam was in fact linked to those regions, to the west and north, in which both alchemical raw materials and expertise were abundant.17'"
b. Maharashtra. The highly generic Srisailam, "excellent peak," has been identified, throughout history and across several regional traditions, with a number of mountains of the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the two or even three candidates for this toponym within Andhra Pradesh itself, there have also been peaks called Srisailam in western Uttar Pradesh (at Devalgadh, a hill eighteen kilometers northeast of Srinagar, in Pauri Garhwal district), Kerala,176 and Maharashtra. The Garhwal toponym is closely connected to Satyanath who, according to the Sankaravijaya of Anandagiri, conversed with Saiikaracarya atop this peak in the Himalayan foothills. The Nath Siddhas identify this Satyanath with the Sittar author of twenty-one al chemical works.177 Elsewhere, the KJnN clearly identifies Srisailam with the pitha of the Goddess at Kamakhya; the KM locates a sris'aila-vana above the brahmarandhra and the four pithas; and Siddha Nagarjuna, in his KPT, refers to Srlparvata as a kitla-parvata or "clan peak." These three identifi cations ought, however, like the "Nine Naths" of the Western Transmis sion, to be consigned to the realm of the subtle physiology of the bodily microcosm, rather than to the geography of the Indian subcontinent.178 Nath Siddha traditions locate a Maharashtran Srisailam in the vicinity of the upper Godavari River,17" a region that was, for at least three centu ries, an important center of activity for Nath and Rasa Siddhas alike. It was near the headwaters of the Godavari that Devagiri (modern Daultabad, Aurangabad district, Maharashtra), the capital city of the Yadava kings, was situated.1"0 In the centuries prior to the fall of their kingdom to the sultans of Delhi in 1318, the Yadavas appear to have directly patronized all of the groups I have been discussing in this chapter. Bhillama (1175-91), the founder of the dynasty, was the royal patron of Bhaskara, the guru of the Nagarjuna who authored the Yogaratnamala}™ Bhillama's successor, Jaitugi, was instrumental in introducing Saivism into the Kathmandu Val ley; Jaitugi's successor Sirighana was himself an Ayurvedic physician and a
"3
Sources for the History of Tan trie Alchemy great patron of vaidyas and alchemists.[H: Thirty years after his demise, it was during the reign of the Yadava king Ramacandra (1271-13 n ) that the Nath Siddha Jnanesvara wrote his Jiianesvarl and Yogisampradayaviskrti (VSA), and that a grant of land was made by that king to the same Nath order in thejagalur taluka of Karnataka in 1279.,8! According to Nath Sid dha tradition, Jnanesvara's guru Nivrttinath fully realized his yogic practice at Tryambaka Ksetra ("Plain of the Three-Eyed [Siva]"), the source of the Godavari.1"4 Gahaninath, the disciple of Gorakhnath and guru of Nivrttinath in Jnanesvara's lineage, is mentioned together with "Coraksanath" by Nityanatha in his thirteenth-century alchemical Rasaratnakara, an indi cation that this was a Maharashtran work. The Tantra Maharnava, possibly a Western Transmission text, maintains that Nagarjuna hailed from "a for est near the Godavari"; still another states that Gorakh was born on (yet another) Gindragiri, on the banks of the Godavari.185 The Avadhuta subsect of the Nath Siddhas, said to have been founded by a twelfth- to thirteenth-century figure named Dattatreya, was also originally based in this region; the Dharamnathi subsect is presently based there.18'' Another pan-Indian toponym found this region is KadalT-vana ("Plan tain Forest"), which rivals Moon Mountain and Moon Island as the most frequently recurring venue of Nath Siddha legend. A Plantain Forest, lo cated in the vicinity of Tryambaka Ksetra187 corresponds to a toponym found in the RA: this is Kadall-nagara ("Plantain City"), which this text too locates on the Godavari. In fact, in all of the rare cases in which the RA gives specific geographical data—most of it on the subject of "magical waters"188 (hot springs, corrosive mineral waters, poisonous waters, etc.)— the locations it details are clustered around the headwaters of this river; when the discussion is more general, it is locations in southwestern India that predominate. So, for example, this work's Plantain City description states that "in the south . . . is a pure and auspicious river, as renowned as the Ganges, called the Godavari. On its southern shore is a city called Plantain City; to its south is the world-famous mountain called Krsnagiri ('Black Hill'); nearby is a town called Ambika, where sanjivinijalam ('resus citating water') is found."18" Yet another RA (12.260-62) reference to this region designates a loca tion in the Sahyadri (Vindhya) range to the north of the Godavari as the site of a hot spring (usnodaka); a Nath Siddha source, the Kadalimanjunatha Mahatmya, locates the Plantain Forest on the southern flank of the same range.190 This data, together with what appears to be a reference, in the RRS, to
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the author of the RA having indirectly passed down the formula for a min eral preparation to Siiighana—the Yadava king of Devagiri from A.D. 1210 to 1247—make it likely that this, India's most important work on tantric alchemy, was compiled along or near the upper Godavari, albeit prior to the A.D. 1175 founding of the Yadava dynasty.'9'
c. Gujarat One of the physicians who graced the Yadava court was Bhaskara, who came to Devagiri from Kashmir in the latter half of the twelfth century. Two of Bhaskara's disciples, however, were based in Gujarat. The first of these was his son Sodhala, who was the author of the an Ayurvedic lexicon entitled Sodbalanigbantu, and the second was Nagarjuna, who eulogizes this Bhaskara as his teacher in the opening verse of his Yogaratnamala. This same Nagarjuna may have been the author of the Kaksaputa Tantra: both are works on tantric healing and sorcery, and a number of verses, formulae, and colophons in both works are identical.'9' We can be more or less cer tain of the date of the Yogaratnamala because its important "Laghu Vivrtti" commentary, written by Svetambara Bhiksu Gunakara, is dated to A.D. 1239. While Gunakara was, as his tide indicates, a Jain, he was also very likely a tantrika (a Jain tantric tradition did indeed exist alongside the I Iindu variety) with a knowledge of alchemy. I Ie was also from Gujarat, as evinced in the use he makes of a number of vernacular terms.193 Now, Gujarat has long been a stronghold of Jainism in India, and it is here as well that Jain alchemical lore is the most frequently encountered. So, for example, two Svetambara Jain sources, the A.D. I 304 Prabandha Cintamani of Merutuiiga and the A.D. 1349 Prabandhakosa, give accounts of a Nagarjuna who is a Jain alchemist, accounts which appear to borrow freely from Buddhist and Hindu lore on his subject. According to the latter work Nagarjuna is born the son of the snake king Vasuki and the human princess Bhopala, from Mt. Dharika, [a peak identified with the sa cred Jain site of Mt. Satrufijaya, also in Gujarat], an alchemical won derland.194 He grows up to become the preceptor of a Satavahana king, but leaves him to go to Palittanakapura, the city of the Jain wizard Padalipta.195 After a series of incidents, Padalipta accepts him as his student, and instructs him in the preparation of an elixir of immortality (rasasiddhi), with the aid of a magical image of the Jain tirthamkara Parsvanatha, and a chaste woman to stir [grind] the po-
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
tion. He manages to secure both, and prepares the elixir on the shore of the Sedi River, with the aid of his royal patron's queen Candralekha. Her two sons kill him before he can benefit from the elixir (but not before he buries some of the elixir on Mt. Satrunjaya); the site on the Sedi where he made it becomes the Jain pilgrimage site called Stambhana Tirtha, the "holy site of immobilization," for this is where Nagarjuna solidified his [mercurial] elixir.19'' A number of elements found in this legend link it to other sites on the Kathiawar peninsula of Gujarat, as well as to a site in Assam. Mount Satrunjaya/Dharika was a peak renowned for wells and springs said to contain the elixir of immortality A mid-fifteenth-century work, the Satrtinjayakalpa, relates a story in which a young man learns from a Jain monk of a well of rasa at the site, which is only visible to persons who perform reli gious austerities in front of an image of the Jlna Santinatha and make a nocturnal offering to a snake goddess named Vairothya. Satisfied by the young man's acts, Vairothya opens the well for him, and he gains the elixir. This account closely resembles a myth from the ca. fourteenth-century Sirhhasanadvatrimsika (Thirty-two Tales of the Throne), in which King Vikramaditya, by offering his own head to the tantric goddess Kamaksl, af fords access to a Siddha who has been attempting, without success, to enter into a sealed cave, next to Kamakhya pttha, in which a vessel containing the elixir is hidden.197 The second connection concerns the toponym Dharika. According to another Jain source, the A.D. 1277 Prabhavakacarita, Nagarjuna was born not on a peak named Dhahka-Satrufijaya-Palittanakapura, but rather in the town of Dharika. On the urging of Dominik Wujastyk, who had been there two years previously, I visited this site in the winter of 1993. A series of caves behind the Siva Durigaresvara temple to the west of this village con tain old bas-reliefs and a sculpted image which the local residents say is a representation of Nagarjuna. It was in these caves that Nagarjuna would have practiced his alchemy.198 A third connection lies in the many mountains that become conflated in the Jain sources. In addition to the three mentioned a moment ago, a fourth, ValabhI-saila—either another name for the same peak (identified with the modern Palitana, in Bhavnagar district) or another peak in the area—is also reputed to have been a center for Jain alchemy1"9 Valabhipur is the name' of a town (twenty-five miles north of Palitana) which, more over, becomes the focal point for what has to be the most oft-repeated
11(,
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legend in Gujarat. This is the legend of the sudden destruction of a city by fire, through the agency of an angry holy man (often a Nath Siddha) or in some connection with alchemy. In Kathiawar, the name of the destroyed town is Valabhl; in Kacch, it is called Pattan. The historical source of the Valabhl version of the story was the sack of the city by Amru ibn Jamal of the Sind in A.D. 788.20° Apparently, physical traces of this destruction remained visible for several centuries after the event and gave rise to a body of legend. An early account is that related by Alberuni in the first half of the eleventh century, according to which a merchant who had become fabulously wealthy through the possession of an alchemical touchstone had managed to buy up an entire town, which a king named Vallabha was also eager to own. The merchant entered into an alliance with a "Lord of Almansura," who made a night attack on King Vallabha and destroyed his town.201 Alberuni concludes: "People say that still in our time there are such traces left in that country as are found in places which were destroyed by an unexpected night attack."202 At the town of Dhank some one hundred miles to the west of Valabhipur, blackening on certain of the outer facades of Nagarjuna's caves is identified by the local people as traces of the sack of Valabhl.20' Some one hundred miles to the northwest of Dhank, on the southern coast of Kacch, is a town named Mandavi. According to Nath Siddha leg end, a city named Pattan was once located two miles to the north of Man davi. Unfortunately for Pattan, the Nath Siddha Dharamnath, who was on his way east from Peshawar in the fourteenth century, chose to stop near this town and sent two of his fellow Yogis to beg alms there. With a single exception, the hard-hearted people of Pattan gave nothing; and for this, Dharamnath upset his alms bowl and cursed the people saying, "be fallen \pattan] all the Pattan cities." So it was that all the cities in Kacch bearing this name were swallowed up, together with their inhabitants.204 (The source of all of these legends may in fact be a Liiiga Parana myth of a demon named Jalandhara, in which it is stated that with the fire from his third eye, Siva destroyed two cities of the Sind, which fell into the ocean.)205 In his Kaksaputa Tantra,2"6 Nagarjuna refers to what appears to be the fall of a city named Pattan; this would further support the theory that he was a Gujarati author.207 In about the year 1030, Alberuni indicates that a Nagarjuna practiced his alchemy some one hundred years before him—i.e., in the early tenth century—at a site north of Somnath that he calls "Fort Daihak"; this would appear to correspond to the toponym Dhank, which was mentioned a mo-
Sources for the Histoiy ofTantric Alchemy
inent ago in the context of Nagarjuna legends. Now, if a tenth-century Gujarat-based Nagarjuna indeed wrote a treatise on alchemy, that work has been lost: none of his extant Hindu alchemical works predate the thir teenth century. It is, however, worth noting that the sole text attributed to Nagarjuna in the Jain canon is a rasa tantra.20" Elsewhere, the Jain equiva lent of the Buddhist Carydpadas, the Padnha-doha written by Muni Ramasiihha in the Apabhrarnsa vernacular in about the year A.D. IOOO, contains an alchemical poem.209 An untitled anonymous Jain work on Ayurveda, written in Gujarati script, is perhaps the earliest Indian medical work writ ten in a medieval vernacular. It dates from the twelfth century.210 These vernacular works aside, a number of major Hindu alchemical works, writ ten in the Sanskrit medium and straddling the line between tantric alchemy and therapeutic alchemy, are Gujarati productions. The most important of these are the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Rasendradidamani of Somadeva, a resident of (the lost Gujarati city of) Bhairavapura; and the thirteenth-century Rasaprakdsa Sudhakara of Yasodhara Bhatta, who hailed fromjunagadh. 2 " Surat, on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, has long been a center for the manufacture of synthetic cinnabar, through the sublimation of imported mercury with native sulfur. Gujarat moreover continues to be a leader in alchemy and Ayurvedic rasa s'astra, down to the present century. The Gondal Rasayansala (Gondal, Rajkot district) was, throughout the first half of this century, a center for the edition of the major alchemical texts by the resident vaidya, YadavjT Trikamjl Acarya. It was at the Gujarat Ayurved University in Jamnagar that the first critical edition and translation of the Caraka Sambita was compiled; and at the same site that alchemical gold was most recently synthesized, in 1968. Many of India's greatest presentday specialists in rasa sastra have received their training there from Profes sor Hari Shankar Sharma.212 Some twenty minutes by scooter rickshaw to the south of Junagadh is the magnificent peak of Girnar which, according to the A.D. 1333 Vividhatlrtbakalpa of Jlnaprabhasuri and the Skanda Purana, is also a site abounding in mercurial pools (rasa-kupika) and alchemical miracles.213 Girnar is also a peak abounding in Jain temples, as well as caves and crags sacred to the Nath Siddhas, and, to all appearances, the two groups have been enjoying a symbiotic relationship there for centuries. Girnar is dotted with shrines to a number of important Nath Siddhas (Gorakh, Dattatreya, Bhartrhari, Gopicand), and has been an important pilgrimage site for the order since at least the thirteenth century; the site is already mentioned by
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Hsuan-tsang, in connection with "supernatural rsis" by which Pasupatas of the sort described by his contemporary Banabhatta are likely in tended.214 The beautiful Jain temples located on its southern flank date from the thirteenth century, but Jains may well have been there from an earlier date as well. Gujarat is also a region with a relatively high concen tration of Nath Siddhas, who have monasteries and temples throughout the state.215 d. Rajasthan Another western Indian site at which one finds a similar sort of symbiosis between Nath Siddhas and Jains is the equally ancient sacred site of Arbuda Devi (Mount Abu, Sirohi district, Rajasthan), located some 250 miles to the northeast of Girnar as the Siddha flies. Like Girnar, Abu has an al chemical reputation: in the early stages of my fieldwork, I was assured by Yogi Narharinath, abbot of the Caughera monastery (in the Dang Valley of the inner Terai region of Nepal) and the most illustrious Nath Siddha scholar of our time, that I would find living, practicing alchemists at that site.2"' In fact there is a curious symmetry between Girnar and Abu, begin ning with the fact that both are located on east-west ridges comprising a series of three peaks. At the base of both pilgrimage routes, one encounters Nath establishments called "[Gorakh] Tileti."217 From these, the pilgrim's west-to-east progress first passes through the Jain temple complexes, fol lowed by shrines devoted to the Hindu goddess Amba (on the first peak) and other mainstream Hindu deities; on the second peak is a Nath shrine (Gorakh at Girnar; Goplcand at Abu);:iB and both pilgrimage routes termi nate or culminate, at their easternmost points, at sites identified with Dat tatreya. This last peak is called Guru Sikhara, the "Guru's Pinnacle," at Abu, while it is simply called Dattatreya at Girnar. So too, the central peak at Girnar is referred to not as Gorakh ki Dhuni (Gorakhnath's Fireplace), which is technically more exact, but simply as Gorakhnath. The reason for these Girnar toponyms goes back, I believe, to the ar chaic Buddhist and Hindu cults of divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas, who were denizens not only of the atmospheric regions, but also, in the Hindu popular imagination, of mountaintops. The Girnar peaks of Gorakhnath and Dattatreya are so called not because they feature shrines to these Nath Siddhas, but because they are these Siddhas.219 In fact, one might quite aptly summarize the legacy of the Nath Siddhas by calling theirs a con quest of high places. From identifications with the Siddhas and Vidya-
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dharas identified with such heights, to Pasupata spells to gain power over the same Vidyadharas, to the yogic cultivation of the power of flight (khecara), to the claim they have laid to the high places of the Indian subconti nent, to the widespread practice of using cannabis as a means to "getting high,"22" the Nath Siddhas have always been upward bound. The Jain temples at Abu and Girnar alike feature massive images of Neminatha (in black stone) and Parsvanatha, who are considered to have been the twenty-second and twenty-third tlrthamkaras of that faith. It will be recalled that it was a miraculous image of the former that was employed by Nagarjuna to produce an alchemical elixir in the Jain legend recounted in the Prabandhakos'a. Parsvanath's name can in fact be simply read as "Lord of the Touchstone" {parsva, paras), making the alchemical connection an obvious one. There is another dimension, however to this figure and his successor, which moreover aids us in understanding the apparent JainNath Siddha symbiosis encountered at Abu and Girnar. This is the body of Nath legend that transforms Parsva and Neml into Nath Siddha sons of Matsyendra. In a variant on the classic myth of Matsyendra's brush with death in the form of sexual dissipation in the Kingdom of Women in As sam, Matsyendra becomes a king in Simhala (generally identified with Sri Lanka), and fathers two sons, Parsvanath (or Parasnath) and Nemlnath (or Nlmnath). In a classic ruse, Gorakh seeks to "disenchant" Matsyendra by killing the two boys, skinning them, and hanging their hides out to dry. When Matsyendra grieves for his sons, Gorakh decries his attachment to the gross bodily husk and revives the two boys. Matsyendra returns to the yogic path and initiates his sons as Nath Siddhas. They become the found ers of the Nimnathi and Parasnathi panths, the two Jain suborders of the Nath sampradaya.22' In such a syncretistic milieu, we should not be sur prised to find Hindu and Jain alchemists exchanging expertise with one another or Hindu and Jain sectarians sharing sacred mountains. There also exist historical connections between the two sites, connec tions which account in part for the significant numbers of Marwari and Mewari Hindus who travel to Girnar and of Gujarati Hindus who come to Abu (of course, Jains from both regions circulate between the two sites as well). Southeastern Rajasthan and Gujarat are linked, both culturally and linguistically, in a number of ways that point to a common historical legacy. This legacy dates back to the time of the Maitraka kings of Valabhl. Ac cording to legend,222 when Valabhl was sacked and Siladitya VI, its last ruler, slain, his queen, PuspavatJ, was returning to the capital from a pil grimage to Amba Bhavani, in her native land of CandravatI, a short dis-
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tance to the south of Abu."' Great with child, she hid herself in a cave in the mountains of Malia to give birth to a son. She then committed suttee. Her son, raised by a foster mother, was named Guha, "Cave-Born." The child, who grew up among the aboriginal Bhils of nearby Idar (Sabarakantha district, Gujarat)—in the Rajasthan-Gujarat border region—was later elected to be their king. So it was that he became the founder of the Guhilot (from Guha) clan, the family of the future Ranas of Mewar.224 Ninth in line from Guha was Bappa ("father") Rawal, who, according to the fifteenth-century Ekalinga Mahatmya, founded the kingdom of Mewar in A.D. 728 and the Eklihgjl temple (fourteen miles north of his capital of Udaipur). In fact, there is no extant epigraphical mention of Bappa Rawal prior to the A.D. 971 Eklihgjl inscription of Naravahana.225 The Ekalinga Mahatmya and a number of other legends further associate Bappa Rawal with sectarian forerunners of the Nath Siddhas. According to these sources, the young Bappa, forced to live in forest exile after the slay ing of his father Nagaditya by the Bhils,22'' encounters an itinerant Saivite ascetic named Harlta Rasi, who accepts him as his disciple. Harita Rasi agrees to initiate Bappa into his Saiva order and thereby imbue him with immortality and supernatural powers. But when Bappa comes to the ap pointed initiation site, the ascetic has already begun an ascent to the atmo spheric realms. Before rising out of sight, however, he spits down upon his disciple, commanding Bappa to receive his expectorate in his mouth. "Bappa showed his disgust and aversion by blinking, and the projected blessing fell on his foot, by which squeamishness he obtained only invul nerability by weapons instead of immortality."227 With these, he grows up to defeat his father's slayers and become the founder of the Mewar king dom. As I show in chapter ten, this common theme of Saivite and Nath Siddha legend has important philosophical and practical implications. Legend has it that another itinerant ascetic whom Bappa met in his wanderings in the wilds of Udaipur, and who gave him a two-edged sword with which to defeat his enemies, was none other than Gorakhnath. Of course, this is chronologically impossible. However, inscriptional and nu mismatic evidence supports the Eklihgjl temple's claims to antiquity and Bappa's connection with the Saivas of his time. A gold coin from the time of his reign is inscribed with the words Sri Voppa on the obverse, together with a trident, a Siva linga, and a bull; below is the image of a man, pros trate, having large pierced ears, the holes exaggerated.228 As such, this seal would appear to be a representation of Bappa's initiation, featuring the ear boring that has so long been identified with the Nath Siddhas. Given the
Sources for the History of Tantric Alchemy
chronology, however, it is far more likely that Bappa's ear-boring initiation was performed by a Pasupata. This is further supported by the name of his initiator: Rasi was a common name ending among the Pasupatas.229 It is certain, however, that the custodianship of the temple passed through the hands of the Nath Siddhas before being given over to the Ramanandls in the sixteenth century.230 Following his initiation, Bappa assumed the title of "Rawal" (from the Sanskrit, raja-kula, "royal lineage") whence the name by which he is known to history: Bappa Rawal. According to Hazari Prasad Dvivedi, Rawal was, already in the eighth century, a clan name proper to the Pasupatas which, in the thirteenth century, became the third of the old Saivite clans absorbed into the Nath sampradaya. The Rawals have, in the course of the inter vening centuries, become transformed into a Muslim suborder, based for the most part in Pakistan and Afghanistan.2" These were "great wander ers" (they give the Persian rawifida, "wanderer," as the etymological root of their name), who were to be found peddling quack medicines and other wares of a dubious nature in nineteenth-century Europe and who continue to sell their services as hail stoppers in Kumaon, where they are called Oliyas, "hail men." Rawals are also based in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh (Jwalamukhi), and Hariyana (Asthal Bohar). As a suborder, the Rawals are closely associated with the Dharamnathis, Satnathis, Pagalpanthis, and Parasnathis.232 They are also known as Nagnathis, by virtue of which fact they are said to bear some connection to the Nflth Siddha known as Arjun Naga or Nagarjuna, whose suborder is based at Jwalamukhi in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. If only by virtue of his name, this figure is identified as an alchemist. Elsewhere, Gorakh refers to an unnamed Rawal Yogi as an alchemist in one of his banis.2ii Nagnath, the legendary founder of the Rawal suborder, is said to have been a disciple of Gorakh; since, however, this clan was originally Pasupata, it predates Gorakhnath by several centuries. Another early Nath Siddha hail ing from the present-day region of Himachal Pradesh is Carpati, who is said to be the disciple of Matsyendranath. A historical Carpati is named m a tenth-century vamsavali from Camba, and his samadhi is located at ChambadevI (Chamba district), to the north ofJwalamukhi.234 Jwalamukhi was already a pilgrimage site in the time of the Mahahharata;ly- at present, the Nath Siddhas control a subsidiary shrine—a miraculous pool of cold boiling water—at the site.236 Today, it is the Nagnathi-Rawals who accompany pilgrims to the farflung western pitha known as Hihglaj Devi (Las Bela district, Baluchisthan,
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Pakistan).:'7 A gas vent and "fireplace of Gorakhnath" are maintained there down to the present day.238 In spite of the inaccessibility of her original worship site, Hiriglaj Devi remains an important goddess for Hindus in western India, and temples consecrated to her are found throughout this region. Tradition links Pasupata forerunners of the Nath Siddhas with the founding of yet another dynasty in western Rajasthan. These were the Rawal kings of Jaisalmer.-" According to the bardic chroniclers who were the informants of Colonel James Tod, the founding of this dynasty occurred in the following fashion: Deoraj [b. A.D. 836], the future founder of the Rawal dynasty, is a prince without a kingdom. One day, he is visited by a Jogi named Rita who bestows upon him the title of Sidfdha]. Rita, who possesses the art of transmuting metals, one day goes away, but leaves his tat tered cloak \jaijari-kantha] behind. Inside the folds of this cloak is Rita's elixir vessel [rasa kumbba], from which a drop falls upon Deoraj's dagger, turning it to gold. Deoraj decamps with the elixir ves sel, and uses it to raise an army and the walls of a fortified city. Rita is well aware of the theft, and later comes to visit Deoraj in order to legitimate the latter's possession of his stolen property. This he does on the condition, however, that Deoraj become his disciple and, as a token of his submission and fidelity, adopt the external signs of his order. He gives him the ochre robes of his order, places the earrings (mudra) in his ears, the little horn [singnad] around his neck, and loin cloth [langoti] about his loins; in this garb, and with gourd in hand, Deoraj then perambulates around the dwellings of his kin, exclaiming alakh! alakh! Then, having exacted that these sectarian rites of initia tion should be continued to the latest posterity, Rita disappears. Thereafter, the title of Rao was abandoned for that of Rawal.-'4" If this account is historically accurate, then the ninth-century western Rajasthani forerunners of the Nath Siddhas were already Nath Siddhas in everything but name. The jarjari-kantba, mudras, singnad, and use of the expression alakh ("attributeless," an apophatic description of the absolute) are all hallmarks of the sect. If it contains elements from a later time than it purports to describe, it nevertheless portrays the Nath Siddhas as wonder working king-making alchemists.-41 Given the chronology, Deoraj's itin erant Yogi Rita would, like Bappa Rawal's Harfta, have been a Pasupata rather than a Nath Siddha.
FIVE
Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
In an important theoretical work written in 1981, Marcel Detienne argues that "raw myth," if such a thing ever existed, would have taken the form of lists or catalogues of names, lists from which generally oral native exegesis would have subsequently generated genealogies or lineages, and which written interpretation would later have transformed, from the vantage point created by the act of writing, into mythology. The myth, fragile and eva nescent, is metamorphosed into something else as soon as it is recounted. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, the myth does not exist: it is rather mythology, the exegesis and interpretation of myth that scholars study, whether they be located "inside" or "outside" the tradition in question.1 With the lists of Rasa and Nath Siddhas that grounded our discussion in the preceding chapter, we seemed to find ourselves in the gray area be tween the ground zero of myth (catalogues of names) and the first impulse of native exegesis, i.e., the organization of list into lineage. We also wit nessed the written interpretation, and thus the transformation of these original "myths" into mythology, in the legends of the eighty-four Mahasiddhas; the creative appropriation, in chapter four of the RM, of certain of the names figuring in the Rasa Siddha lists; and the proliferation of my thology generated by the multiple lists of the Nine Naths. By reading be tween the lines of these mythologies, I attempted to glean a certain number of elements to aid in reconstructing a history of the medieval Siddha tradi tions. In the present chapter, I attempt to effect a similar hermeneutics of retrieval, this time through a survey of the alchemical literature.
1. General Survey of Alchemical Literature in the Sanskrit Medium Of what value are the Rasa Siddha lists for anyone who would attempt to reconstruct the history of Hindu alchemy? Nearly half of the names on the «3
i-4
Chapter Five early lists (RM; RRS [a]; RRA) appear to be so many voyageurs sans baggages, with either no alchemical texts, attributions, or citations connected to their names in later sources, or, at best, unverifiable references in this or that solitary source.: Many appear to simply be the names of gods. As we have already noted, Adima (i) is none other than a variant on Adideva or Adinatha, the Lord of Beginnings. Sambhu (i i), Brahma (24) and Hari (27) are the three gods of the so-called Hindu trinity. Ratnaghosa (10) is a Buddhist figure, while Kambali (16) and Nagabodhi (20) are names carried over from the Buddhist Mahasiddha lists. These would appear to be names of figures classified as divine or semidivine Siddhas.1 Another group of names are so many black holes in an alchemical void. Who were Visarada ("Skilled"), Matta ("Intoxicated"), Ekaratna ("One Jewel"), Indrada ("Gift of Indra"), Surananda ("Joy of the Gods"), and Khanda ("Portion")? Were they teachers of known alchemists and as such mute links in lost alchemical lineages? If they were authors of alchemical works, were their works lost to or simply disregarded by all later alchemical authors? Or have their works and the works of later authors who may have cited them all been lost? Indeed, certain south Indian historians of alchemy maintain that all of the major alchemical works were originally committed to writing in the medieval Grantha script of Tamil Nadu and that certain of these were never transliterated into the north Indian Devanagari script. As evidence, they note the fact that many south Indian alchemical works cite alchemical sources of which north Indian traditions ignore the exis tence.4 Another possibility is that these were individuals whose teachings were oral, rather than written; or that these were people who were living exemplars of the alchemical arts. Such persons may be living, even today, in bodies immortalized through the use of mercurial preparations. Or, like the Zawgyi alchemists of Burma, they may have lived fast, died young, and left good-looking corpses (for mercury does indeed tend to "pickle" one's epidermis, in life and after a premature death), prior to realizing a certain modicum of immortality in the Rasa Siddha lists. The most likely explanation is that these unaccountable names, like so many of the "begats" of the Old Testament, were fillers in "systematic ge nealogies" that manuscript copyists dutifully passed on to posterity for the simple reason that copyists copy. Or again, they were names that filled the lotus petals of so many lost alchemical worship mandalas. Elsewhere, my remarks concerning the interplay between divine and human Siddhas and Vidyadharas appear to be apposite: a number of the Rasa Siddhas were
Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature gods whose divine works have yet to be revealed to humanity. Whatever the case, I will follow the lead of the tantric and Siddha alchemical authors themselves and generally disregard those Rasa Siddhas whose names they but rarely mention, save in the lists reviewed in the last chapter. A number of names from the early lists appear to correspond to authors of various works. Candrasena (2) is said to be the author of a lost work entitled Rasacandrodaya.s Lahkesa (3) is generally identified with Ravana— Lanka's Lord (lanka-isa)—who authored the Kumars Tantra, an early and important text on the treatment of childhood diseases, and whose daugh ters are said, in the tenth- to eleventh-century Tamil Iramavataram of Kampari, to be the wives of the eighteen Tamil Sittars.6 Mandavya (7) is the name of an Ayurvedic teacher cited by Vagbhatta the Elder in the Astanga Samgraha and the author of a lost alchemical work entitled Rasavdridbi. He is also cast, in a passage from the fourth chapter of the RM,7 as a conversa tion partner to Nagarjuna and [co-]author of a work entitled Vasistamandavya. (As we have already indicated, however, the historicity of many of the figures introduced as alchemists in the RM—including Ratnaghosa [10] and Nagabodhi [20]8—is doubtful). Somadeva, the twelfth- to thirteenthcentury Gujarati author of the Rasendracudamani [RC]," mentions Bhaskara (8) and Sambhu (11), but gives no details on who they were or what they wrote.10 Since Somadeva was himself from Gujarat, however, the Bhaskara he invokes may well have been the guru of the twelfth- to thirteenthcentury Nagarjuna who authored the Yogaratnamdld. Surasena (9) is pur portedly the author of the lost Rasendrasuraprabhdva, Naravahana (13) that of the lost Rasanandakautuka, and Lampata that of the equally lost Lampata Tantra.'' It is with the names that appear in the latter portions of the older lists, as well as a number of names from the later lists (RRS [bj and [c]), that we appear to move from the realm of legend into that of textual history: many correspond to known authors of often extant alchemical texts. As was men tioned in the last chapter, Vyadi (17) is an alchemist whose legend was known to the eleventh-century Alberuni and two of whose alchemical works were translated into Tibetan in the Tanjur. In addition, the Garuda Punhia praises Vyadi as an authority on gemstones.'- Nagarjuna's (18) al chemical pedigree is solid: we will return to him shortly. Govinda (25) is the name of the author of the ca. tenth- to eleventh-century RHT, very likely the earliest extant Hindu alchemical tantra. Carpati—the figure whose name appears the most often, after Nagarjuna, in lists of both Nath
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Chapter Five
and Rasa Siddhas, is the author of two short post-fourteenth-century vernacular alchemical works, entitled Carpat Rasayan and Carpat Nathji ke s'lok—as well as of two lost Sanskrit works, entitled Svargavaidyakapalika and Carpati-siddhanta. Conclusive textual evidence (a local vamsavali; and the Grub thob, which names him as Vyadi's guru)13 indicates that a Carpati lived in the kingdom of Camba (Himachal Pradesh) in the tenth century; if this figure was the author of the two Sanskrit alchemical works men tioned above, he would have been one of the earliest of the Hindu alche mists.14 Carpati is also the subject of alchemical legend in both Tibetan Buddhist and south Indian traditions and is cast as an alchemist in a Sikh work, the Pran Sankali.'5 By far the biggest name-dropper among the alchemical authors was Somadeva, whose RC was mentioned a moment ago. In addition to naming Bhaskara, Sambhu, Govinda, and Nagarjuna, he also mentions Nandi (no. 30 in the RRS [a] and [c] lists) and Bhaluki (no. 38 in the RRS [a] list), as well as Manthanabhairava, Svacchandabhairava, Bhairavacarya, Srikantha, and others. Srikantha, whose name appears in none of the lists passed in review here, is simply another name for Siva: the Pasupata teachings were revealed to Lakullsa by Srikantha (or Nllakantha). He is cast as codiscussant (with the goddess Uma) in an alchemical work that has recently been edited under the title of Goraksa Samhita: it is likely to this work that Somadeva is referring.16 Although Manthanabhairava (no. 32 in RRS [a] and [c]) does not appear in the Rasa Siddha list of the RM, this work mentions him elsewhere and, after the fashion of nearly every other post-eleventhcentury alchemical work, describes an elixir called manthanabhairava rasa. According to P. V. Sharma, Manthanabhairava would have been the author of the Anandakanda (AK) and personal physician to the king of Sirhhala (Sri Lanka?). I have found no evidence to support this claim. On the one hand, the AK as a text is at least a century younger than any of the refer ences to Manthanabhairava found in other tantric alchemical works; on the other, the AfCs chapter colophons state that it was revealed by Mahabhairava.17 The eleventh- to twelfth-century Manthanabhairava Tantra is, however, one of the most important works of the Western Trans mission, and one that is moreover linked to the Goraksa Samhita.19 As we will see shortly, a RM reference to a text entitled Manthanabhairava may be a clue to the presence of an eponymous figure in the Rasa Siddha lists. Apart from the AK, three other important tantric alchemical works are
Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
also cast as divine revelations transmitted by human authors who chose to remain anonymous. One of these presents us with no problems, however. This is the Kakacandesvarfmata (KCM), a text revealed by Siva to Kakacandesvari—the "Fierce Crow[-faced] Goddess"—and clearly the text attrib uted to the alchemical author Kakacandlsvara (no. 33 in RRS [a] and [c]).19 The two other such works are more problematic. The Rasopanisat (RU) is, according to Siddhinandan Misra, the work of a certain Kapalika master, which evokes the name "Kapalika," the twenty-fourth Rasa Siddha in the RM/RRS [a] lists. In its first chapter, the Rasopanisat itself states that it is nothing other than an abridgement, in eighteen chapters, of an earlier work, in twenty-nine chapters, entitled the Mahodadhi.10 Now, there is a tradition according to which a certain Kapall (no. 5 in the RM/RRS[a] list) authored an alchemical work entitled Rasaraja-mahodadhi. If this is the case, then the Rasopanisat author who epitomized the Mahodadhi in his work could have been a "Kapalika"—i.e., a follower of Kapall rather than a member of the "skull-bearer" Saiva sect—or both. A lost work, simply entitled Mahodadhi, is attributed to a certain Sivanath Yogi; if this is the work to which the Rasopanisat refers, then Misra's theory is untenable (un less Sivanath Yogi was a Kapalika).21 The last work in this group is the most tantalizing of all, given that the anonymous Rasarnava is truly the summum of tantric alchemy. According to P. V. Sharma, the history of this text is intimately connected to a Yadava king named Sirighana (1210-47), who was one in a series of great royal patrons of the medical and alchemical arts.2' Sharma maintains that a cer tain "Bhairavananda Yogi"—whom the RRS (16.126) names as having indi cated (vinirdista) a preparation called the "Lokanatha packet" (potali) to a King Sirighana—was the author of the RA. Three manuscript copies of the RA, held by the Anup Sanskrit Library in Bikaner, carry the following colophon: "thus concludes Isvara's alchemical dialogue . .. the great trea tise [entitled] Rasarnava. .. [as] uttered by Yogananda."2' By metathesizing the two components of this latter name, one arrives at Ananda-yoga. The work is, moreover, cast as a dialogue between Bhairava and Bhairavi: by juxtaposing the name of the divine revealer of this work to that of the figure who recounted it, one could conceivably generate the name Bhairavaananda-yog[i]. If, however, we accept Sharma's argument that the Bhaira vananda Yogi who indicated an Ayurvedic preparation to Sirighana was also the author of the RA, this pushes the date of this work forward to the early thirteenth century, which is chronologically impossible.24 The RRS passage
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Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
cited by Sharma, which concerns a preparation called the Vaisvanara packet, states that "this preparation was declared by king Sirighana . . . Its application is known [to be the same as that of] Sirighana's packet called Lokanatha, which was handed down (vinirdista) by Bhairavananda Yogi." The operative term here is "handed down": the vi- prefix here indicates that the Bhairavananda Yogi who handed down this alchemical preparation was not a contemporary of Sirighana.25 It is moreover curious that the preparation the RRS attributes to Bhairavananda Yogi is nowhere to be found in the RA. As I will demonstrate, the RA is an eleventh-century text. It therefore follows that its author is not to be identified with the figure to whom Sirighana attributes the invention of this preparation. The author of the RA would more likely have lived under the imperial predecessors of the Yadavas, i.e., the Calukyas of KalyanI, whose tenth- through twelfthcentury kingdom covered most of the same western territory of India as
and a number of important tantric texts, including the massive Svacchanda Tantra (SvT), quite naturally bear his name." It is therefore uncertain whether this Rasa Siddha was a human alchemist or an alchemists' god. Indeed, the alchemical god Rasabhairava, whose iconography is described in the RA (2.63-64), is an ectype of Svacchanda Bhairava.'2 With this, we return to "signed" alchemical works. Rasendratilaka Yogi (no. 37 in RRS [c]) is the name of the author of the Rasasdratilaka. Vasudeva (no. 42 in RRS [c]) is the purported author of the lost Rasasarvesvara." The name Kriyatantrasamucchayl (no. 43 in RRS [c]), literally the "Compiler of the Kriya Tantra," is likely a reference to the ninth- to tenth-century Kriyakalagunottara Tantra, an early work on tantric sorcery and healing. This work is, however, revealed by the ubiquitous Srlkantha.34 Srinatha, who doubles with Srlkantha as the divine revealer of the Western Trans mission texts, is also the purported author of an alchemical work entitled the Rasaratna. This work has also been attributed to Manthanabhairava.35 Ghoda Coll (no. 55 in RRS [c]) is the author of a short Sanskrit alchemical work entitled Ghoda Coll, or Ghodacoll Vakya.ib He is also identified with Collnath, the founder of the Al panth, one of the original twelve Nath sub orders.37 We have already noted the south Indian traditions concerning Allama Prabhu (also known as Prabhudeva, no. 52 in RRS [c]), a founder of the Vlrasaiva sect and considered, in Tamil traditions, to be an incarna tion of the alchemist Nandi.38
did that of the Yadavas.26 It is much easier to simply identify the RA with its divine revealer, which is what I believe Somadeva does when he refers to "Bhairavacarya" and what Vagbhatta II (RRS [a] and [c]) does when he lists Bhairava as its twenty-ninth Rasa Siddha. The evidence of the RRS lists is all the more compelling for the fact that the Rasa Siddha whose name immediately pre cedes that of Bhairava is Rasarikusa: throughout the RA, Bhairava describes the worship of his own and the Goddess's alchemical forms. Whereas he is called Rasabhairava, the "Mercurial Bhairava," she is always referred to as Rasarikusi, the "Elephant Goad of Mercury." It follows that the two should appear together in the Rasa Siddha lists.2" The RRS ([a] and [c]) also lists a third Bhairava—named Svacchandabhairava—as a Rasa Siddha (no. 31). This figure is cited as an alchem ical author in the thirteenth-century RPS of Yasodhara Bhatta and the sixteenth-century Rasakalpa.is In its chapter colophons, the so-called al chemical Goraksa Sambita calls itself (among other things) the Svacchandasaktyavatara ([The Revelation] Brought Down by Svacchanda Sakti). A number of references are made in this text to the cult of Svacchanda (Bhairava), and the opening chapter intimates that this is an abridgment of a greater alchemical work in twenty-five thousand verses originally r vealed by Svacchanda.29 As already noted, however, this work is a dialogue between Srlkantha and the goddess Uma. Moreover, in the final verses o a number of manuscripts of this work, the "Nath [named] Goraksa" is mentioned.30 Like Manthanabhairava, and Bhairava tout court, Svacchandabhairava is first and foremost the name of an important tantric divinity,
Ratnakara and Nityanatha (nos. 36 and 48 in RRS [c]) may be one and the same figure: Nityanatha is the author of the thirteenth-century Rasaratnakara, the same text from which Vagbhatta II would have copied his second ([b] = RRS 6.51-53) list of Rasa Siddhas verbatim. The fifth di vision of the RRA, entitled "Siddha Khanda" or "Mantra Khanda," is the manifest source of the KPT of Siddha Nagarjuna, a work on tantric sor cery.'9 Like the "Mantra Khanda," the Saharacintdmani, which treats mainly of tantric sorcery, is also a work of Nityanatha Siddha, "son of Parvati"; in it, the author states that the teachings of his work were originally ex pounded by Matsyendra.40 In addition to being listed as a Rasa Siddha in the RRS, Nityanatha is also listed, in the HYP (no. 19), as one of the yogic Siddhas who had "broken Time's rod." Was Nityanatha, as his name and his writings would seem to indicate, a Nath Siddha? Chances are that he was. Certain manuscript colophons to the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, gen erally attributed to Gorakh, call it a work of Nityanatha Siddha.41 If this is the case, then Nityanatha, whose RRA is dated to the thirteenth century, w as a Nath Siddha polymath who, not unlike his near contemporary Gor-
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akh, would have been well versed in the alchemical, yogic, and tantric dis ciplines. It may be, on the other hand, that Nityanatha Siddha and Nitya natha, son of Parvati, were two distinct persons, in which case the double listing—as Nityanatha and "Ratnakara" in the RRS [cj—would be an accu rate one. The authors of approximately half of the major extant tantric alchemical works are found to correspond to names figuring in the Rasa Siddha lists. These texts are the Rasahrdaya Tantra of Govinda, the Kdkacandesvarimata and Kdkacandisvara Kalpa Tantra attributed to Kakacandlsvara, the Rasendra Mangala of Nagarjuna, the Bhutiprakarana (or Svacchandasaktyavatara or Goraksa Samhitd) attributed to Goraksa, and the Rasaratndkara of Nitya natha. Major extant alchemical texts by authors whose names do not figure in the Rasa Siddha lists all date from the thirteenth century or later and de crease in the originality of their content with the passing centuries. More over, following a paradigm shift that occurred in the thirteenth to four teenth century, the content of most of these later works tends to shade from an emphasis on tantric elixir alchemy towards either therapeutic or purely transmutational ends. These works include the ca. 13th-century Rasendracuddmani of Somadeva, Rasaprakds'a Sudhdkara of Yasodhara Bhatta,42 and Rasapaddhati of Bindu;4' the 13th- to 14th-century Rasaratnasamucchaya of Vagbhatta II and Rasddhydya of Kaiikala Yogi;44 the 14th-century Rasardjalaksmi and Rasasindhu of Visnudeva or Vitthala;45 14th- to 15thcentury Rasasara of Govindacarya;46 the 15th-century Rasaratnadipika of Ramaraja;47 the 15th-century Rasacintdmani of Anantadeva Suri;48 the 15thcentury Rasendracintdmani of Dhundhukanatha;4'' the 15th-century Rasasanketakalikd of Camundakayastha;50 the 15th- to 16th-century Sivakalpadruma of Sivanatha;51 the 15th- to 16th-century Rasardjas'iromani of Parasurama;" the 16th-century Rasakalpa, Pdradakalpa, Gandhakakalpa, and Dhdtukalpa (all of which spuriously claim to be portions of the Rudrayamala Tantra, and authored by Nagarjuna)5' and Rasapradipa of Prananatha;54 and the 17th-century Rasendrakalpadruma of Ramakrsnabhatta.55 The reader will have noted that a significant number of these texts are the work of authors whose names end in Yogi or Ndth. There is, however, little or no internal evidence to indicate that any of these—with the possible excep tions of the RRA of Nityanatha and the Rasendracintdmani of Dhundhuka natha—were in fact the work of Nath Siddhas. In addition to these works on Hindu alchemy, a number of other sources lend an important place to alchemy, even though their main subject matter
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is of another order. So, for example, we find a sizable corpus of works on tantric sorcery—works that may be classified under the general heading of Kriya Tantras—which include chapters on or references to alchemical preparations and procedures.56 The earliest of these is the Kriyakdlagunottara Tantra, a work dating from the ninth to tenth century. This text, which takes the form of a dialogue between Srlkantha (identified with Siva) and Karttikeya, is a work on tantric healing through the use of mantras, amu lets, rituals and sorcery.5" Another later work, the Yogaratndvali of a Saiva master named Srlkantha Siva, is a so-called "poison tantra" dating from perhaps the fifteenth century. Its sixth chapter contains alchemical data.58 From the same period is another work on tantric sorcery, the Kautukacintdniani of Pratapadeva, which contains a significant amount of data on gener ally "magical" alchemy—potions for invisibility, magical flight, attraction, projection, etc.59 Two texts dating from the twelfth to thirteenth century—the APT and the shorter Yogaratnamdld (or Ascaiyaratnamdld)—are both the work of a Siddha (or Sriman) Nagarjuna. Their content, moreover, is so similar that they are likely the work of one and the same author: the former work, however, is little other than a reworking of a portion of the RRA of Nityanath Siddha.60 Both the RRA and the KPT postdate the Dattdtreya Tantra and the KCM; all three cite their sources in their opening verses; apart from a nearly identical list of four works (in which both give "Kalacandesvara" for Kdkacandesvara), the RRA and APT both add another twenty-four sources not mentioned in the Dattdtreya Tantra.61 A final text belongs to a category all its own. This is the ca. thirteenth-century Mdtrkabheda Tantra {MBhT), a Sakta-Saiva work on the tantric worship of Siva and the God dess, whose first, fifth, and eighth chapters contain original alchemical data mainly pertaining to the fabrication of mercurial litigas.62 This is also the sole alchemical work under discussion here to betray an east Indian origin. Also containing data on tantric alchemy are a number of medieval com pendia and encyclopedias, all of which are of western Indian origin. These include the ca. A.D. 1040 Rdjamdrtanda of Raja Bhoja of Malava; the A.D. 1131 Mdnasolldsa of the Calukya king Somesvara III "Bhulokamalla";61 the fourteenth-century Sdiiigadhara PaddhatifA and the fourteenth-century Sarvadars'ana Sajngraha of Madhavacarya. Those portions of the Mdnasolldsa that are devoted to yoga closely resemble passages of the Yogasikhopanisad, which is one of nine works from the south Indian corpus of 108 Upanisads that borrow visibly from works by Gorakh and other Nath Siddhas.65 Also contained in this work are discussions of elixir (rasdyana) therapy (in-
'3-
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eluding the technique of kutipravesa, "entering into the hut"), and the culti vation of a divine body, possessed of the siddhis of flight, etc.66
none of his poems in the Nath Siddha anthologies treat of alchemy, the figure of Dattatreya (7) does in fact bear a tenuous connection to the al chemical tradition: the Dattatreya Tantra, a ca. twelfth-century work attrib uted to him, contains a chapter on "magical" alchemy. A lost alchemical work perhaps attributed to him is the Rasaratnavali of Guru Datta Siddha.72 Belonging to Dattatreya's Maharashtran lineage is Revana [SiddhaJ, to whom two lost alchemical works have been attributed: the Rasadarpana and
2. Matsyendra and Gorakh: The Nath Siddha Literature The two greatest modern contributions to the historiography of the ver nacular literature of the Nath Siddhas have been a critical edition of the mystic poems of Gorakhnath, compiled by Pitambaradatta Barthwal in 194267 and that of a corpus of poetry attributed to a number of other Nath Siddhas, compiled by Hazariprasad Dvivedi in 1957. Both editors, who consulted a number of manuscript sources in the preparation of their works, found that "standard anthologies" of the poetry of Gorakhnath on the one hand and a number of later Nath Siddhas on the other have existed since at least the fourteenth century and that these standard antholo gies have not been greatly altered over time. There is, moreover, general agreement that the language of these poems appears to be a blend of Dingal (Old Rajasthani), western Punjabi, Khadl Bholl, and Apabhrarnsa.68 Following Gorakhnath, whose literary output (at least by attribution), in both the medieval vernaculars and Sanskrit media, dwarfs that of any other Nath Siddha or, for that matter, nearly any other medieval poet, we find the following frequently recurring "signatures" on the medieval mystic po etry of the order. These authors, in order of the volume of their antholo gized literary production, are (1) Gorakh, (2) JatI Hanavant, (3) Carpati, (4) GopTcand, (5) Bhartrhari, (6) Mahadev, (7) Datta[treya], (8) Ghoda Coll, and (9)Jalandhara/Hadi-pa. Two of the names listed here—JatI Hanavant (2) and Mahadev (6), who figure in none of the lists of the nine Nath Siddhas—will not concern us here. A single verse from a poem by Bhartrhari (5) is alchemical.69 There are no alchemical works attributed to either Cauraiigi, Kaneri, or Goplcand (4), nor do alchemical references appear in any of their mystic poems. Ml do, however, have much to say about hat ha yoga, ami alchemical motifs recur in all of their legends. The sparse extant alchemical works of Carpati (3) and Ghoda Coll (8) have already been surveyed; a poem contained in Dvivedi's anthology, the "Sri Carpat jl Id sabadl," is a short treatise on the subtle body. Carpati also figures in a number of alchemical legends.70 The two short poems by Naga Arjan found in Dvivedi's anthology contain no references to alchemy,71 and it is doubtful that this is the same figure as any of the candidates for the historical alchemist named Nagarjuna. While
Rasarajas'iromani.7 J
Major Nath Siddhas who are conspicuous by their relative absence from these vernacular anthologies are Adinatha (no poems), Matsyendra (one poem), and Cauraiigi (four poems). The "Pran Sarikall," Cauraiigi's contri bution to the standard anthologies is, however, exceptional in its length, content, and antiquity. The literary productions of Matsyendra and Nagar juna are nearly wholly restricted to the Sanskrit medium. There are a number of Sanskrit works attributed to Adinatha. As with Dattatreya and Srikantha, however, it is difficult to determine whether we are to take these as the works of a historical author, or rather the received revelations of Siva, the "Lord of Beginnings." Some of these works belong to the Western Transmission;74 however, the principal work attributed to Adinatha, as far as our interests are concerned, is the ca. fourteenthcentury Khecari Vidya, the "Aviator's Science." This Sanskrit work, which places itself squarely in the hathayogic tradition of the Nath Siddhas, is unique in that its final chapter is devoted to a description of the alchemical complement to yogic practice. As such, it is an exemplary work of Siddha alchemy.75 None of the eight works76 attributed to Matsyendranath—either in San skrit or vernacular languages—contains any alchemical data. This not withstanding, his teachings are recognized by a vast number of later tantric authors as fundamental to their own syntheses, as I demonstrate in this and later chapters. A mention of the Siddha[-amrta] Kaula in Matsyendra's masterwork, the KjfnN (16.47a, 48b; 21.4-7), is significant inasmuch as Siva-Bhairava is praised as the leader of the Siddha Kaula in an opening verse of the RA (1.4b); the same alchemical work (18.228a) closes with— and perhaps takes its title from—a verse it appears to borrow from the KJnN(i5.ja). It also mentions worship of the Siddha Cakra (RA 14.24), a tantric "systematic genealogy" in which Matsyendra figures prominently.77 In this, we may see that, in addition to his pivotal role within the broader tantric tradition, Matsyendra also constituted a bridge between main stream works of the Hindu tantric tradition and the alchemical tantras.
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Matsyendra's KJnN is itself a synthesis of the Siddha and Yogini Kaula traditions, inasmuch as it portrays the latter as emerging out of the for mer.78 The Mrgendragama, a ninth- to tenth-century Saivasiddhanta work, casts the two as separate but equal groups: "The sages know of eight [other] currents, connected respectively to Siva, the Mantresvaras, the Ganas, Gods, Rsis, Guhyas, the Yogini Kaula and the Siddha Kaula . . . The Yoginls received a wisdom that immediately causes yoga to shine forth. It was called yoginikaula because it never went beyond the limits of their circle. The same is the case for the other [i.e., the Siddha Kaula current]." This relationship between Matsyendranath the Siddha and theyoginis of Kamarupa (Assam) becomes the subject of a rich body of Nath Siddha legend in later centuries.79
brows), to which he adds the crowning brabmarandbra;*6 he notes the tech niques of pranayama and kapalabheda (20.20-33), khecarimudrd (6.18-19), "binding" and "piercing" (4.11); and one may discern in matsyodara ("fishbelly"), the name he gives for his sect in the fourth and present age, the Kali Yuga, an occult reference to the hathoyogic technique of diaphrag matic retention (kumbbaka).87 There is, moreover, no conclusive evidence to prove that Matsyendra's Yogini Kaula and KJnN are later than the West ern Transmission's Kubjika cult and KM. On the one hand, the earliest manuscript of the KJnN is older than the oldest Kubjika manuscripts;88 Abhinavagupta mentions Macchandanatha89 and the KM;W and both Abhinavagupta91 and the KM92 mention Matsyendra's Yogini Kaula. On the other hand, Matsyendra makes no direct mention of either the goddess Kubjika, the Western Transmission, or Abhinavagupta's Trika Kaula.
Matsyendra also constitutes an early and vital link between two peren nial heartlands of tantric practice: eastern India (Assam, Bengal, Orissa) and Nepal. While his KJiiN was revealed in Kamarupa, both the oldest manuscript of the work and the oldest mythology of Matsyendra hail from Nepal.80 Nepal has also long been the homeland of the Western Transmis sion and its cult of Kubjika, and it is in the Kathmandu Valley that nearly all the important manuscripts of the Western Tradition scriptures are found. A great number of other data, some of which I have already noted, further link Matsyendra (and later Gorakh) with this latter Kaula tradition. Both the revelations of Matsyendra's Yogini Kaula and the Western Trans mission were "brought down" at the "lunar" site of Candra-dvlpa (or Candra-giri)81—even if, in Matsyendra's case, Candradvlpa is to be iden tified with coastal Assam and the Western Transmission's Candradvlpa or Candragiri with coastal Karnataka. The YSA locates Gorakh's birthplace at Candragiri, "on the shore of the Godavari River" in western India.82 The KJiiN of Matsyendra and the Western Transmission's KM contain the earliest extant references we have to the six cakras of hathayogic prac tice. Whereas the earliest mention of the six cakras of Hindu83 batha yoga appears in an eighth-century A.D. literary source, the Malati Madhava of Bhavabhuti,84 a number of scholars maintain that it was in such Western Transmission works as the Kubjikdmata (KM) that these practices were first discussed systematically85 Here, I offer evidence to the contrary. In fact, Matsyendra's KJiiN gives a more extensive account of the subject than does the KM. In KJiiN 17.20-48, Matsyendra lists the six cakras by their loca tions i.e.: (1) gudba (anus), (2) guhya (genitals), (3) nabhi (navel), (4) hrd (heart), (5) ghantikagrantha (throat), and (6) bbrumadhye (between the eye-
Matsyendranath's pivotal role in the history of tantric sectarianism became further expanded when the myth of his "recovery" of the original tantric teachings of Siva related in the KJiiN (16.27-36) became appro priated as the origin myth of the Eastern Transmission (piirvimnayd), that tradition within which the Trika Kaula scriptures were classified. It is moreover through an appropriation of this myth that Abhinavagupta was able to reincorporate—into the "secret worship" of the same Trika Kaula whose reforms had removed such practices from the public sphere— the orgiastic, power substance-based observances that had been inherited from the Kapalika practices associated with the scriptures of the old Vidya Pltha. This he did by adapting into his synthesis the diagrammatic render ing of that Eastern Transmission "systematic genealogy" known as the Sid dha Cakra, the "Circle of the Siddhas." This diagram was used as a support for the tantric worship of the Kaula lineage deities (Kulesvara, Kulesvarl, and the eight Mother Goddesses together with their Bhairava consorts), as well as of theyuganathas, the "Naths of the Cosmic Ages," i.e., the Kaula masters who taught in the four yugas. Of these four mythic Naths, each of whom bore an animal name, the fourth and last, associated with our own Fourth Age was Macchanda (i.e., Matsyendra).93 While Macchanda was identified with the northern direction in the Siddha Cakra, his female con sort was named Korikana, whose name again evokes the region in which Srlnatha and the "Nine Naths" founded the Western Transmission. The Siddhas as a group are placed in the southern quadrant of this diagram, and the siddhaugha ("Siddha stream") in the western quadrant.94 We may therefore see in this diagram evidence both for the tantric reappropriation
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of the preexisting cult of the divine Siddhas and for the incorporation of certain human or divinized Siddhas, led by Matsyendra, into that elite circle. The Trika Kaula considered Macchandanatha to have been the founder of the kula, the line of transmission of the Kaula tantras. This is explained in a myth according to which Macchanda fathered twelve sons, sending six of them out (from Srisailam) into the Indian subcontinent to found six Kaula orders in the Fourth Age: these are the six ovallis ("currents of doc trine") of the Trika Kaula."5 Elsewhere, it is likely that Matsyendra's teach ings also influenced the development of the Buddhist Kapalika-YoginT cult within the highest yoga tantra (anuttarayogd) current of Vajrayana Bud dhism.96 To what are we to attribute Matsyendra's pivotal role? The answer to this question may be elicited from a passing reference made by Abhinavagupta to the distinction between the earlier Kula practices of primitive tantrism, and the later Kaula traditions, for which Matsyendra's reforms would have constituted a watershed. In the words of Alexis Sanderson, The distinction between Kula and Kaula traditions . . . is best taken to refer to the clan-structured tradition of the cremation-grounds seen in the Brahmayamala-Picmnata, Jayadratha Yamala, Tantrasadbbava, Siddhayogesvarmiata Tantra, etc. (with its Kapalika kaulika vidhayah) on the one hand and on the other its reformation and do mestication through the banning of mortuary and all sect-identifying signs (vyaktalingatd), generally associated with Macchanda/Matsyendra.97 In other words, Siddha Matsyendra, founder of the YoginT Kaula, shifted the emphasis of early tantrism away from the "terrible" practices and clanbased (Kula) system featured in the scriptures of the Vidya Pltha, and towards the erotico-mystical practices that became the bedrock of later Kaulism. In the ninth and tenth centuries, we witness the emergence and three-stage evolution of Trika Kaulism, which reached its peak of refine ment, in the eleventh century, in the exegetical summa of Abhinavagupta and his disciple Ksemaraja. While publicly carrying Matsyendra's reforms to a still higher level of abstraction (in order to render Trika ritual accept able to the broader Kashmiri Saiva community), the Trika reformers pre served, as a cult of their virtuosi,98 the erotic ritual of Matsyendra's Yogini Kaula, described in the KJiiN. Whereas early (pre-A.D. 800) Trika and the KJiiN both emphasized the cult of yoginis (who were to be invoked with
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Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature offerings and the communal consumption of blood, flesh, wine, and sexual fluids)," Abhinavagupta's later synthesis toned down the grimmer side of the public cult while promulgating a "sublimated" form of its eroticomystical practices for public consumption. "I0 (The notion of the kula nev ertheless remains operative in the Kaula context. The Kaulas are those per sons who belong to a kula, i.e., to a clan lineage, a particular tantric line of transmission through a series of masters and disciples, and who make use of the power substance of the Goddess's sexual emission, also called kula).[m Abhinavagupta's reinterpretation of the kula practices turned espe cially on the matter of sexual orgasm and the use of its by-products: While its principal purpose in the Vidyapltha was to produce the power-substances needed to gratify the deities, here the ritual of cop ulation is aestheticised .. . the emphasis has now moved to orgasm itself. It is no longer principally a means of production. It is a privi leged means of access to a blissful expansion of consciousness in which the deities of the Kula permeate and obliterate the ego of the worshipper.'"-' Even as he plays to the Kashmir Saiva gallery, Abhinavagupta does in fact retain the concrete use of sexual fluids in the secret ritual of those initiated into the Trika Kaula.103 In certain cases, he prescribes, for the attainment of siddhis, the consumption of sexual fluids after intercourse. Here, the partners are to pass these fluids from mouth to mouth prior to placing them into a collecting vessel as an offering to the gods of the tan tric "sacrifice."104 In the Siddha Cakra worship of the yugandtbas, the offi ciant offers to Bhairava (with whom he has identified himself), as well as to the circle of energies that surround him, by drinking a mixture of male and female sexual fluid from a sacrificial jar.'05 Noteworthy here is the gloss given by Jayaratha, the thirteenth-century commentator on the TA, for the term siddhi: he identifies this term with phidasthahya, "stability of the body," which is precisely the watchword of the alchemical RA (1.14b, 18a, 28b) and the hathayogic works of the Nath Siddhas. In the same com mentary, Jayaratha refers to the fluids produced by sex as "the best of elix irs (rasayana)!'106 Elsewhere, Abhinavagupta employs alchemical imagery to describe the abstract states of consciousness ideally realized by the practitioner. So, for example, he compares the attainment of absolute consciousness with the transmutation, by mercury, of base metals into gold; and speaks of the burning away of all difference within the "stomach of consciousness" in a
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way that draws an analogy between digestion in the gross body, the effects of hatha yoga and alchemy on the subtle body, and the gnoseological iden tification between the finite and absolute self.107 Elsewhere, he invokes Matsyendra's "fish-belly" technique, stating that the yogin is to "repose devoted to the condition of the belly of the fish."108 In this, the Trika Kaula theoreticians, even as they effected their re formation of Hindu tantra, remained in touch with the concrete ground of the tantric enterprise, which was and remains human sexual fluids and their symbolic correlates. The cosmic force that activates and actualizes every facet of tantric practice—that originates from the womb of the Goddess and passes through every link in the chain of transmission, from guru to disciple and thence to his or her disciple, via the inner channels of yogic transformation and through the channels that energize the mystic dia grams that serve as supports for worship and meditation—is ultimately nothing other than a stream (ogha) or flow (srotas) of sexual fluid. The life and structure of the tantric family or clan (kula) is defined by the life- and immortality-giving flow of the clan essence (kuldmita) that is transmitted, concretely and in the form of sexual fluids, in tantric initiation and worship rituals. This is attested in a wide array of sources. In his KJnN (22.2-3), Matsyendra speaks of the transmission of the kaulamrta through the six yoginis; elsewhere, his entire twenty-first chapter, in which he discusses the kaula-sadbhava ("true essence of the Kaula"), is of the same order: this term as well is used to designate the yoginVs sexual emission.109 Down to the present day, Assamese tantrikas identify their "lineage nectar" (kula?nrta) with the goddess's menstrual fluid or the commingled sexual fluids of Siva and the Goddess."" If then the preservation of the universe depends upon—indeed, is noth ing other than—the endless cosmic orgasm of the divine, and if the bliss of orgasm is that human experience which is closest to the very being of godhead, then the stuff of orgasm—male semen and the female sexual emission and uterine blood—will, of necessity, play a vital role in the tan tric quest for divine autonomy, immortality, and power. No matter how abstract and refined tantric practice has become over the centuries follow ing Abhinavagupta's reformation of the Trika Kaula, sexual fluids remain present, in one or another sublimated form, to every sect or order claiming tantric affiliation. In the idealist and nondualist syntheses of Abhinavagupta and Ksemaraja, the sublimation of sexual fluids took the (outer) form of a remarkably complex and coherent semanticization of ritual (especially
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in the realm of ritual mantra), which was subsequently adopted into the SrTvidya cult of the Southern Transmission (daksindmnaya).ln These intellectualized, abstract forms of late "high" Hindu tantrism— which have, of late, defined the field of western scholarship on Tantra— fall outside the purview of the present study."2 We will rather concentrate on the Siddha perpetuation of the tantric legacy, a tradition whose three components are neatly summarized by the great tantric practitionerscholar Gopinath Kaviraj: "Some . .. were accomplished {siddha) in the al chemical path (rasa-marga), some accomplished through hatha yoga, and still others had perfected themselves through tantric practices or through the use of sexual fluids (bindu-sddhana)!' " 3 Herein lies the "Siddha distinc tion." Whereas the tantric synthesis generally ignores alchemy and rele gates hatha yoga to a secondary role in its hierarchy of practice while plac ing a very high premium on worship through the use of real or sublimated sexual fluids, the Siddha traditions privilege all three forms of comple mentary practice. The guiding principle here remains one of controlling a universe that is understood to be a body, the body of the divine consort of Siva, the body of one's own consort, and the feminine in one's own body. In the Siddha play of analogies between microcosm and macro cosm, and the corresponding hierarchies of the interpenetrating realms of universal being, this body is at once a divine, human, and alchemical body, to be perfected through yogic, alchemical, and erotico-mystical practice. Following Matsyendra's lead is Gorakh who is, in nearly every Nath Siddha lineage reckoning, called the disciple of Matsyendra/Mfna. While Gorakh certainly embraced and greatly expanded upon the hathayogic pole of Siddha practice, his relationship to those of erotico-mystical ritual and alchemy is more ambiguous. In spite of the fact that the historical Gorakh and Matsyendra lived at least three centuries apart, a rich body of legend describes the freeing of Matsyendra, by Gorakh, from sexual bondage in a Kingdom of Women in Assam. As I will demonstrate in a later chapter, this is a narrativization of the reforms Gorakh effected within the (Nath) Siddha tradition, which he purged of its erotico-mystical elements in favor of a nearly exclusively hathayogic emphasis. It nonetheless remains the case that Gorakh is considered to have been the author, if only by attribution, of a distinctly Western Transmission text, entitled the Goraksa Samhita, that was devoted to precisely this sort of practice. In fact, there exist no fewer than three major works known by the
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Chapter Five title of Goraksa Samhita, in which we find all three of the building blocks of the medieval Siddha traditions: alchemy, hathayoga, and tantric worship involving the use of sexual fluids. The first of the three works, entitled the "Kadi Prakarana" of the Goraksa Samhita, is a thirteenth-century Sakta work belonging to the canon of the Western Transmission, yet another indication of the interconnectedness of this and Xath Siddha traditions."'1 (Its ninth chapter is attributed to another Nath Siddha, Jalandhara. Like the rest of the Kadi Prakarana this chapter is Sakta in its orientation.)" 5 This is a work in twenty-seven chapters which, devoted for the most part to tantric worship of the Goddess in a variety of her forms, also lends space to a discussion of hathayoga, the Siddhas of the Western Transmission, and tantric cosmology. Another thirteenth-century work, also referred to by certain authors as the Goraksa Samhita, is one of the major texts of the tantric alchemical tradition. This, by far the most voluminous alchemical work attributed to Gorakh, is variously known as the Goraksa Samhita, Bhutiprakarana [BhP], Svacchandas'aktyavatdra, and Hadibheda. It is, nonetheless, cast as a dialogue between Srlkantha and the goddess Uma, the former being, much like Adinatha, a pseudonym for Siva in works of the Western Transmission. I discuss this alchemical work at length later in this chapter. Apart from the BhP, a small number of Gorakh's vernacular mystic poems and technical writings in Sanskrit include references to alchemy; curiously, as many of these disparage alchemy as praise it. In the latter category, the sixth Pad of his bants presents an allegorized description of the yogic body as a goldsmithy cum alchemical laboratory."6 Another vernacular work attributed to Gorakh, entitled the Yogadtpika, is written in the Old Kannada lang uage. I have not consulted this work; however, a description of it leads me to believe that it is a south Indian version of the Hathayoga Pradipikd of Svatmarama, a fifteenth-century work that borrows heavily from the Goraksa Sataka and other Sanskrit hathayogic works attributed to Gor akh. Unlike the HYP, however, the Yogadtpika contains some alchemical passages."7 By far the most important body of teaching attributed to Gorakh, in both the Sanskrit and vernacular media, is that consecrated to hatha yoga, in which field he was India's major systematizer and innovator. Gorakh's major poetic works, anthologized in the Gorakh Bdni, include the Sabadl, Pad, Pran Saiikall, [Machlndra-] Gorakh Bodh, Gyan Tilak, Atma Bodh, Caubls Siddhi, Sisya Darsan, Naravai Bodh, and Kafir Bodh. Another im portant vernacular work, not included in this anthology, is the Gorakh
Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
Upanisad.us A great number of hathayogic works, written in Sanskrit, are attributed to Gorakh. There is a great deal of overlap between these texts, most of which appear to be elaborations on the so-called Goraksa Sataka, the "Hundred Stanzas of Goraksa" (of which the critical edition contains 201 verses!), which is datable to the thirteenth century."', These works in clude the Amanaska Yoga, Amaraugha Prabodha, Amaraugbasdsana, Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha, Goraksa Paddhati, Maharthamanjari, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, Vivekamartanda, Yogamartanda, Yogabija, and Yogacintdmani.120 As for the "third," hathayogic Goraksa Sa?hhita, this is a work that curi ously links Gorakh with Dattatreya, who, in western India and Maharash tra in particular, is more of a god (incorporating Brahma, Visnu, and Siva—but especially Visnu—in his iconography) than a legendary human figure; and in this he plays a role similar to that of Adinatha. Yet, there was at least one historical Dattatreya, who authored a number of works on yoga and tantra in the twelfth to thirteenth century. In fact, the fourteenthcentury Sarhgadhara Paddhati goes so far as to classify the two major forms of yogic practice, the "six-limbed" practice and the "eight-limbed" prac tice, as "GorakhnathT" and "that of the son of Mrkanda" (a reference to Dattatreya, inasmuch as it is this figure who reveals the yogic doctrine of the Markandeya Parana) respectively. In the Gorakh Upanisad, Gorakh terms the former akula and the latter avadhuta.121 Indeed, there exists a work entitled the Dattatreyagoraksa Samvada (A Conversation between Dattatreya and Goraksa), whose principal subject is yogic practice. This work is known by a number of other names, however. The most common of these is the title Avadhuta Gita, which indeed mentions both Dattatreya and Goraksa in its opening verses.12- However, this dialogue appears to be nothing other than the fifth and final chapter of the hathayogic Goraksa Samhita (whose third chapter moreover bears a striking resem blance to the Akulavira Tantra of Matsyendranath). The organization of this third, hathayogic, Goraksa Samhita also resembles that of the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, another of Gorakh's seminal hathyogic works. The Goraksa Paddhati, a manual on hathayoga, also refers to itself, at one point, as the Goraksa Samhita.™ In fact, the alchemical Goraksa Samhita, i.e., the BhP (9.133), states that the Goraksa Samhita is a work in five parts.1-4 In the light of the evidence we have passed in review, we must conclude that these were originally independent works which became concatenated into the Goraksa Samhita, "Goraksa's Compendium," a fact that points, if nothing else, to Gorakhnath's imposing medieval reputation as a Siddha virtuouso.
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3. On the "Tantric" Element in Tantric and Siddha Alchemy
tantric tradition.12g The content of these works contains references to a number of tantric sects (the Kaulas, Kapalikas, Pascimamnaya, etc.), while a number of alchemical authors and Rasa Siddhas (Nagarjuna, Nandi[-kesvara], Goraksa, Carpati, Manthanabhairava, and Svacchandabhairava) bear the same names as do the divine or legendary founders of other tan tric traditions. Also in the pages of the alchemical sources, we find myriad references to the mystic geography of tantrism, concerning the sakta pithas of the Goddess as well as the Himalayan and other mountain shrines generally associated with the cult of Siva. Tantric mantras, yantras,'i0 initiation,131 forms of worship and devotion to the tantric gods, and "guruism"132 also figure in the alchemical sources. Lasdy, Hindu alchemy is tantric in its goals and in the means it appro priates to realize those goals. Total autonomy, omniscience, superhuman powers, bodily immortality, and a virtual identification with godhead—al though not at the expense of one's autonomy—are the aims of the Hindu alchemist, just as they are of the great majority of nondualist tantrikas.133 In a more general sense, Hindu alchemy shares the same universe as do many of the other medieval Hindu traditions that identified themselves as tantric and which western and Indian scholars alike today identify with tantrism, particularly of the nondualist variety.134 This is a divine, worldaffirming135 universe, the field upon which the godhead fully realizes itself, and offers realization to those humans who propitiate it. It is also an anthropicU6 universe, seemingly created for human self-realization, with man the measure of all things and that creature who is specifically adapted to plumbing the depths of its mysteries. The tantric universe is a pulsating, vibratory universe,137 in which matter, souls, and sound are the stuff of the outpouring of godhead into manifestation, with godhead generally identi fied with Siva and his self-manifestation or self-reflection taking the form of the Goddess.1313 It is a bipolar, sexualized universe,139 in which all change and transformation are viewed as so many instances of an interpenetration of male and female principles, with metaphysical categories, animals, plants, and minerals all being possessed of a gender marking. It is a ver tically hierarchized universe, in which that which is higher, closer to the source of all manifestation, is subder and capable of encompassing, pene trating into, and reabsorbing into itself that which is lower on the great chain of being. It is a radiating universe,140 with the source of the manifest world being located at the center of a vast network of metaphysical catego ries, divinities, phonemes, etc., all of which are interconnected through a
A number of scholars have maintained that neither hathayoga nor alchemy is, properly speaking, a component of Hindu Tantra. ,:s To the extent that mainstream tantric literature appears to turn a blind eye toward the two disciplines, or at least ignores the names of their founders or exponents in their elaborate "systematic genealogies," this contention appears to have an element of truth to it. The matter is, however, of a rather more complex order. On the one hand, a number of tantric sources do mention alchemy and hathayoga, either directly or by way of illustrating this or that abstract concept or process. On the other, the alchemical and hathayogic sources themselves often claim to be tantric. Finally, there is the matter of chronol ogy. With the important exception of Matsyendra, who, as we have seen, is included in tantric reckonings of lineage founders, nearly all the alchemi cal and hathayogic teachers and authors postdate the foundational tantric compendia and their postscriptural systematizations. In his compelling study of Sakta tantrism, Douglas Brooks argues for a polythetic approach to "tantric" phenomena, in which one is to look to family resemblances between the various tantras (texts with the word Tantra in their title, sects which claim such texts to be their foundational scrip tures, etc.) without taking any single feature or body of features found in such traditions to be normative.126 It is such an approach that I follow here in my treatment of Hindu alchemy, the discourse of which was as much "in the air" in medieval India as were the antinomian cremation-ground rites of the Kapalikas and the refined metaphysics of Abhinavagupta and Ksemaraja. Here, we will assert that Hindu alchemy is tantric because (a) it says it is; (b) it is tantric in its language and referents; (c) it is tantric in its meta physics; (d) it is tantric in its practice; (e) it is tantric in its theology; (f) it is tantric in its goals; and (g) alchemical terminology is employed discur sively or metaphorically in tantric works of a more general order. The alchemical classics are revealed by the same gods (Siva, Bhairava, Srlkantha) to the same goddesses (Devi, Bhairavl, Sakti, Candl[ka]) as are the majority of Hindu tantras. Their form and style are tantric, with most texts consisting of "semidialogues" between god and goddess. Several al chemical preparations bear the names of tantric deities (Nllakantha, Anandabhairava, Svacchandabhairava, Lokanatha, etc.).127 A great number of alchemical classics contain the term Tantra in their tides:' 28 others call themselves Santhitas, or -matas, also appellations proper to the broader
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Chapter Five complex interplay of correspondences. And, ultimately, the tantric universe is an emancipating universe, a universe that is primordially and virtually free: born of the boundless playing out of divine consciousness, its every constituent part, including the human body and spirit, as well as brute mat ter, are intrinsically free. Tantrism therefore places a high premium on ex perience—bodily, practical, concrete experience—which, in conjunction with knowledge, is liberating.H1
4. Hindu Alchemy: The "Canonical" Works Generating a description of the Hindu alchemical canon is a perilous task, given the number of Rasa Siddhas whose works are either unknown or not extant on the one hand and the paucity of critical editions of extant al chemical works on the other. Also clouding the picture is the absence of any certitude that the texts which have come down to us are single-author works and not compilations made over a period of several centuries. Much of what follows will therefore be tentative, given the numerous gray or blank areas remaining in our textual "map" of the Hindu alchemical tradi tion. To this point, the limited historical treatment I have given of certain of these major works has been based, for the most part, on data external to the texts themselves. Here, the analysis will be based on textual and intertextual data. The presentation of the "canon" will follow what I feel to be the most plausible chronological order. In fact, the evidence at our disposal indicates that most of the alchemical classics were compiled over a rela tively brief period, with the great majority being generated within a two hundred-year span covering the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Just as exegetes evoke the "five attributes" (pancalaksana) that define a Purana, so we can point to a number of common features, or family resem blances, that unite the major works of the tantric alchemical canon. These include (1) an opening statement concerning the divine origins and great ness of mercury and sulfur, and (2) a praise of the alchemical path as supe rior to all other Hindu forms of religious practice. Here, bodily liberation (jlvanmukti) is compared favorably to the impersonal workings of moksa, and the complementarity of yogic and alchemical practice is noted. (3) Many works include origin myths of mercury, sulfur, and other of the prime chemical reagents. (4) Many also contain an aphorism in their open ing chapter that is quite identical from one text to another: "Swooned, mercury . . . drives away disease; killed, it revives itself; bound, it affords
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the power of flight." (5) Ritual worship, initiation, and the use of mandalas, mantras, etc. as necessary adjuncts to the manipulation of alchemical sub stances are stressed in most works. (6) The alchemical laboratory and its apparatus (yantras), crucibles (musas), and enclosed "fire-pits" for the roasting of mercurial preparations (putas), and materiae primae (herbs, minerals, gemstones, metals, animal substances, salts, etc.) are described. Most sources list eight primary (maharasas) and eight secondary (uparasas) minerals, nine gemstones (ratnas), anywhere from six to twelve metals (lohas, dbdtus), and (7) eighteen principal alchemical operations (saviskdras). Following this, most alchemical works launch into (8) an extended discus sion of these operations, by means of which mercury and other minerals and metals are prepared and combined prior to transmutation, (9) followed by a discussion of applications of said preparations to the human body of the alchemist, by which he is rendered immortal. (10) Later works also contain sections on the preparations of various elixirs and aphrodisiacs, to therapeutic ends: this is rogavada, the appropriation of tantric alchemy into Ayurvedic mercury-based pharmacy (rasa s'astra). As is the case with most Tantras, these works are written in a dialogue style, in which Siva-Bhairava reveals the alchemical gnosis to DeviBhairavl. Unlike most Tantras, however, a great emphasis is placed on texts (sastras, granthas) as opposed to knowledge communicated orally by a mas ter, even if initiation by a guru is described in many of these works. No single alchemical Tantra contains all of these elements; all contain some of them, and some contain additional elements. Not all of the texts I review here are, properly speaking, alchemical tantras; in fact, only five of them— the Rasartiava, Kakacandesvarimata, Rasendra Mangala, Rasaratnakara, and Bhutiprakarana—can be said to belong to this category. What distinguishes these from the other major alchemical works is their overriding debavada emphasis upon bodily immortality as the alchemist's ultimate goal. Here, they may be contrasted with the softer line taken by Mahesvara Siddha works, which may be qualified as muktivada (i.e., using increased longevity as a means to the higher end of gnoseological release into the absolute) on the one hand and, on the other, the emphasis on dhatuvada and the attain ment of siddbis found in a number of late works. The alchemical Tantras, whose watchwords are jivanmukti and kalavancana ("skewing Time"), are works of Kaula inspiration, which implicitly follow the doctrines promul gated in such texts as the KJnN ot Matsyendra, the KM, and the Kularnava Tantra, as well as the old Yamala texts (Rudraydmala, Brabmaydmala, etc.). Generally speaking, muktivada works take Ayurvedic rasayana as their
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Chapter Five scientific starting point, are Saiva Siddhanta in their metaphysical and soteriological orientations, and feed quite directly into later Ayurvedic rasa s'dstra."2 Many of the major extant works of Hindu alchemy—the Rasahrdaya Tantra, Rasopanisat, Rasendracuddmani, Rasaprakdsa Sudhdkara, Rasaratnasamucchaya, and Anandakanda — h\\ into this category. That is, the preponderance of data found in these works are rogavdda and muktivdda, although, as we will see, they are not wholly bereft of references to dhdtiivdda and dehavdda alchemy. Tantric works emphasizing this-worldly attainments and powers (dhdtuvdda, siddhis) generally take their inspiration from the old "Kriya Tantras," works on tantric sorcery. None of the major alchemical works falls into this category, although nearly all contain references to sorcery and attendant practices. Two works that may be classified as Siddha alchemical works are the Matrkabheda Tantra [MBbT] and Khecari Vidya \KhV~\. The former, rather than being an alchemical Tantra per se, is a Sakta Tantra tout court, but one that devotes significant space to alchemy and hatha yoga. As its name indicates, the latter is a work on the hathayogic technique known as khecari mudra; however, since the term khecari ("one who moves in space," the "aviator") also has a number of tantric and alchemical applications, we include it here. It has generally been held that the RM of Nagarjuna, by one or another name, is the oldest extant tantric alchemical work. In the preceding chap ter, I advanced arguments to refute this misconception. I now reinforce those arguments with additional material from other alchemical texts. a. The Rasahrdaya (Heart of Mercury) Tantra (RHT) of Govinda,143 a work in nineteen chapters dating from the tenth to eleventh century, is very likely the oldest extant Hindu alchemical work. As such, it is unique in a number of ways. To begin, Govinda, unlike all later authors, first (1.2) identifies the combination of sulfur (or mica) and mercury with Visnu and Siva (Hari-Hara), before making the standard identification (1.33) between sulfur-mica as the menstrual-sexual emission of the Goddess (Gauri) and mercury as the semen of Siva. He praises the Rasa Siddhas (1.7), but does not name any of them. Govinda is himself the twenty-fifth Rasa Siddha in the RM/RRS [a] list; the RM also appropriates his verse 1.2, verbatim, as the opening verse of its final chapter: the RHT is therefore older than the RM.1*4 Govinda's aphorism (1.3) concerning the miraculous powers of mercury is shorter than those found in most other works and is unusual in that it equates bound mercury with liberation (mukti) rather than with the power
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of flight.145 This distinction seems to be of a piece with Govinda's general outlook, which clearly follows the soteriology of the Mahesvara Siddhas. Very rarely does Govinda mention jivanmukti; rather, yogic and alchemical practice produce a stable body with which one may accede to the highest end of liberation, i.e., absorption into the absolute, through knowledge of the absolute (brahman).1*' Govinda lists the usual eighteen samskdras (2.1-2) and eight uparasas (9.5), but only six mahdrasas (8.4). He lists nine metals (9.5-6). His descrip tions of the first eight samskdras1*1 are very brief, with most of the body of the work being devoted to the preparation of mineral "essences" (sattvas) which, combined with mercury, serve to transmute base metals into gold or silver. The final chapter is devoted to the priming of the human body for the ingestion of transmuting mercury, and the preparation of four mer curial elixirs, in the form of pills (gtitikas). Nowhere does Govinda assert that such elixirs lead to bodily immortality: good health, a loving wife, and the birth of sons are as much as he promises.148 In many ways, the RHT, with its sober, taciturn style, is a prolegomenon to the later alchemical tantras, which pick up where it leaves off. In the final verses of the RHT, Govinda praises his king, "Sri Madana, scion of the Lunar Lineage (sitdmsuvajns'a) born into the Haihaya clan . . . lord (ndtha) of the Kiratas" as a master of alchemy (rasdcdrya) whose al chemical gnosis (rasavidyd) was not learned, but innate. "I, bhiksu Govinda, having learned much from that king of the Kiratas, am the author of the Tantra called Rasahrdaya''14'' A number of historians of Indian medicine maintain that Govinda's Madana was a tenth-century king of "Kirata-desa," a blanket term, going back to the epics, for the Bhutan-Assam border region; however, a number of Puranas locate the Kiratas in the Vindhya mountain region.150 What Govinda's RHT passage in fact states is that Ma dana is a Somavamsin and Haihaya by birth, lord of the Kiratas by princely avocation, and an alchemist by vocation. Now, there did exist, in the ninth through thirteenth centuries A.D., a royal family called the Kalachuris who traced their lineage back through Haihaya and Yadu to the Moon and who therefore considered themselves to be Haihayas and Yadavas of the Lunar Dynasty. The Kalachuris ruled from Tripura (modern Tewar, north of Jabalpur) over a kingdom whose borders more or less correspond to those of modern-day Madhya Pradesh. Their influence, however, extended well to the west (into modern Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka) and east (Bihar, Orissa) of their boundaries.151 From the tenth century onwards, there ex isted, in the same region (Orissa), a religiously latitudinarian royal family
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known as the Somavamsis, who were patrons of Buddhism as well as of Vaisnavism and Saivism. Finally, two dynasties that ruled in Assam from ca. A.D. 800 to 1100 traced their descent from a king of the "barbarian Clnas" and the Kiratas. 1 " I am therefore inclined to locate Govinda's Somavamsi-Haihaya king Madana, lord of the Kiratas, at the eastern ex tremity (eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa) of the Kalachuri sphere of in fluence (which extended into the western Indian regions I have termed the heartland of tantric alchemy). As for Govinda himself, he could have lived anywhere within the boundaries of this Kalachuri sphere of influence. A tenth- to eleventh-century date for this text is plausible, in the light of the dates of later works that refer back to the RHT. b. The Rasdrnava (Flood of Mercury) is the oldest and most impor tant of the alchemical Tantras and may be dated to the eleventh century.1'' It is an anonymous work in eighteen chapters, cast as a dialogue between Bhairava and Devi. It has been attributed by a number of scholars to a certain Bhairavananda Yogi; "Bhairava," the twenty-ninth Rasa Siddha in the later lists, may be a reference to this text's divine revealer. It is possible that later texts also refer to its author as Manthanabhairava, for reasons that will be discussed momentarily. The RA cites no other author or work (with the possible exception of the Ddmara Tantra)15'* by name. A compari son with the early eleventh-century A.D. Vimalaprabha commentary to the Kalacakra Tantra reveals a number of striking similarities in both language and subject matter with the material found in the former work, which ap pears to be slightly more archaic than that of the RA.>$S Nowhere in the &4 do we find a comprehensive accounting of the eigh teen stmiskdras. In fact, the first eight operations, by which mercury is puri fied prior to being applied as a transmuting agent to other minerals and metals, are reduced in the RA to two: purification (sodhana) and rubbing (jnardand). This is possibly due to the fact that the RA followed a rapid Skull-Bearer method (kapalika-yoga)—as opposed to the slower Lunar (saumya) method—for these primary operations.156 The RA is far and away the alchemical text that most frequently evokes these kapalika methods, for the liquification of gemstones, the coloration of mercury and metals, etc." 7 Like most alchemical works, the RA lists eight primary (7.2) and secondary (7.56) rasas, but lists only six metals (7.97), as opposed to the nine found in most sources. The RA (7.57-66) is the earliest text to provide an origin myth for sulfur; only in later texts, however, does one find a mythic account of the origins of mercury. The abundant tantric elements found in the RA will be discussed at length in the next chapter.
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Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
A number of passages from the RA are nearly identical to passages from the RHT; these may either be paraphrases of the latter on the part of the former, evidence for the oral transmission of the alchemical gnosis, or in dications of the existence of a common source from which both borrowed material.158 The last appears to be the case, for example, with the descrip tion of a preparation that stabilizes and strengthens the body tissues prior to the ingestion of mercury. The RA (18.14) copies the Astdngasamgraha (6.50.245) verbatim, whereas the RHT (19.19) appears to paraphrase that work.'59 As we have already noted on a number of occasions, the RM borrows widely from the RA.U'° That the contrary is not the case is proved time and again by the fact that the RM either unnecessarily embellishes passages from the RA or changes the order of passages in ways that do not make the same sense as they do in the RA. A prime example of the former phenome non is the case of the aphorism concerning the powers of mercury. In no other source is the matter stated more succinctly and powerfully than in the RA (1.19): "O Goddess! Swooned, mercury, like the breath, drives away disease; killed, it revives itself; and bound, it affords the power of flight." Compare the derivative, embellished, and thereby weakened aphorism of the RM: "When bound, [mercury] affords the state of flight; it removes the heap of diseases when swooned; calcinated it is a destroyer of birth and worldly existence; progressed and colored it affords pleasure and libera tion."161 Elsewhere, the RM's list of twenty-seven Rasa Siddhas appears to be an expansion on a group of twenty-four (Rasa) Siddhas mentioned (but not named) in the RA.'62 The latter case in point is demonstrated by the treatment the RM gives of the most elaborate alchemical operation found in the entire RA. This passage, which constitutes the powerful conclusion of the RA (18.208-28), is dramatized in a myth related by Alberuni, in about A.D. 1030, on the subject of the silver threshold of the government house in Dhara (Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh). Alberuni's account is reproduced at the begin ning of chapter three of this book; its close similarity to the procedure described in the RA is a further indication that this is an eleventh-century text. In the RA, "diamond-bound" mercury, which has proven its efficacy by restoring cripples, freaks, and mutants to wholeness and transmuting ten million times its mass of base metals into gold, is to be employed in the ultimate alchemical Work, the transformation of the entire person of the alchemist into an Alchemical Man. This he will do by plunging himself—
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after an appropriate worship ritual—into a cauldron of superheated oil into which pellets of diamond-bound mercury have been placed. At this point, the RA explains the principle behind this operation: the five gross ele ments—"earth, water,fire,air, and ether"—of his material body will be seri ally transformed into their subtle correlates (tanmatras), beginning with that of earth and ending with that of ether. The process is at once a con crete application of the principles of (i) Tantric bhutasiuldhi; (2) "extracting the essence (pancamrta)" of the five elements, as described in the Jayadrathaydmala;"'* and (3) the basic Siddha principle of telescoping the gross into the subtle as a means to generating a siddha body.164 Once the alchemist has plunged himself into the cauldron, his labora tory assistant serially adds the alchemical equivalents of the five elements to the mix, culminating with kha (ether, but also mica), which is to be placed inside the alchemist's skull (presumably all that remains of his gross body at this point): it is noteworthy here that, as with the hathayogic prac tice of khecari mudra, this operation climaxes with ether in the cranial vault.165 Then, "pumping the bellows [until the mix has] the look of molten gold, [the assistant] should add an alkaline substance (ksdra). No sooner has this been done than he [the Alchemical Man] rises up with a mighty roar: 'Hum!'" Then follows a description of the Man's alchemical apotheo sis, in which he sports in the world of the Siddhas with a hundred thousand Siddha maidens.166 The RM's treatment of the same operation is punctuated by breaks, in consistencies, and asides, which indicate a more or less random appro priation of the RA passage. The RM concludes its description of the mir aculous healing powers of diamond-bound mercury with the statement: "Thereupon, one becomes [takes on] another body: there is no need to speculate on this matter." Then, in a very interesting aside not found in the RA, the RM continues: "This is the Great Work which is called 'Five Nec tars' in either the Manthdnahhairava, or then again mentioned in the demon Ravana['s Kumara Tantra]."'7 All the manifold [life forms] in these three worlds, including all that moves and all that does not move are [com posed of the following]: Earth, water, fire, air, and ether? It then abruptly segues back to diamond-bound mercury, which is capable of transmuting ten million times its mass of base metals into gold, at which point it follows the RA description of the operation, with minor variations and one im portant omission: the RM leaves out the pentultimate operation of placing kha in the skull of the Alchemical Man.168 One might think that Nagarjuna, author of the RM, had missed the en
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Tantric and Siddha Alchemical Literature
tire point of this operation—i.e., the creation of an Alchemical Man— were it not for the fact that he refers, in his aside, to the "Great Work called the 'Five Nectars' {pancamrta)? This is precisely the term employed in the Jayadrathaydfnala for the tantric "extraction of the essence" of the five gross corporeal elements as the means to generating a Siddha body possessed of the power of flight. Most fascinating here is Nagarjuna's men tion of the texts entitled Manthdnahhairava and "Demon Ravana." While the latter can only refer to Ravana's Kumara Tantra (which is based in part upon the tantric sorcery of the Kriyakalagunottara Tantra),16'' the former gives rise to thought. There are two candidates for the Manthanabhairava to which Nagarjuna refers. The first, and less likely of the two, is an eponymous alchemical text by this name, which would then account for the name of Manthanabhair ava as the thirty-second Rasa Siddha and for the numerous references to Manthanabhairava (especially to an elixir called manthdnahhairava rasa) in later alchemical works. In fact, all mentions of Manthanabhairava postdate the RA, by which logic one might posit that Nagarjuna is referring to the RA as the (work revealed by) Manthanabhairava. However, the preparation called manthanabhairava rasa, as it is described in the RM itself, as well as in many later works, is nowhere to be found in the RA.170 Moreover, while the RA is obviously Nagarjuna's source here, at no time does that text refer to this or any other operation as the Great Work called the "Five Nectars." The second, and more likely, source to which Nagar juna may be referring is the twelfth-century Manthanabhairava Tantra, one of the core texts of the Western Transmission, a source to which the RC seems also to refer.171 (While Nagarjuna appears to be the sole alchemical author to ever have cited this seminal work of the Western Transmission, the RA itself contains at least one passage that indicates its author's famil iarity with that tradition's cult of the goddess Kubjika.172 We will return to the impact of the Western Transmission on the tantric and Siddha alchem ical traditions in the next chapter.) The question then arises as to whether the citations, in later alchemical works, of Manthanabhairava all refer to a Rasa Siddha by that name, or at times to a work of the Western Transmission; and, if the former is the case, whether Manthanabhairava the alchemist is to be identified with the Bhairava who revealed or authored the RA.l7i The RM copies or paraphrases the RA in scores of other places, most especially in its fourth chapter, in the course of which it samples approxi mately sixty-four verses from the RA, even repeating itself in the same
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places as those in which the RA is repetitive (which only occurs in the RA's final, eighteenth chapter). Ironically, it is in this fourth chapter that we find the "Buddhist" dialogue, set atop Srisailam, between Nagarjuna, the goddess Prajnaparamita, and a host of other luminaries, that convinced Ray and others that this was a Mahayana text. In fact, the passage we have just compared with RA 18.206-228 is cast in the RM is a dialogue between Nagarjuna and Ratnaghosa!174 c. The RA is copied, paraphrased, or cited in a significant number of later works, with a particularly long passage (18.278-337) on the subject of magical waters being borrowed into the Kdkacandisvara Kalpa Tantra (KCKT) (8.2-49).175 This work, which deals mainly with tantric healing through the use of botanicals, has little or no relationship to the Kdkacandesvarlmata (Doctrine of the Fierce Crow[-faced] Goddess) (KCM),iy6 an alchemical text in which tantric elements abound. Here too, a number of nearly identical passages in the RA and the KCM would appear to indicate borrowing from an unknown common source.177 As its title indicates, the KCM is Sakta in its sectarian orientation. More exactly, Kakacandesvarl's corvocephaly is of a piece with such Kaula cults of Kali as the Kaula Mata and the cult of GuhyakalT, which has been popu lar in Nepal since at least the eighth century. In both of these cults, zoocephalic or avicephalic goddesses have figured prominently.178 The Saktism of the KCM is explicit from the outset: while it is the god Bhairava who is doing the revealing, he is nonetheless ringed, atop Mount Kailash, by a circle of "yogmis" named Kapall, Kalaratri, Kakacanda, Ambika, Karall, KalakarnI, and Kakacandesvari, who are accompanied by Gananayaka (Ganesa). In the course of this work, Bhairava refers to Kakacandesvari by a number of names, including Kakacamunda, Bhairavl, and Candall. Bhairava himself is called Siva, Sadasiva, Isvara, and Sarvajfia; and a refer ence is made in the text to the worship of Batukanatha (the "Boy Master") Bhairava.179 Like the RA, the KCM contains an abundance of references to worship, mantras, and sexual practices that place it squarely within the tan tric tradition. Which tantric tradition is another question, however; the KCM appears to be as much inspired by the old Kriya Tantras as it is by the alchemical tradition. The opening verse of the KCM resembles those of the Kulananda Tantra of Matsyendra and the Buddhist Lalitdvistara.,m Following this and a very powerful opening statement (second only to that found in chapter one of the RA) on the inability of the various philosophies and religions to alle viate human suffering, the KCM comes directly to its raison d'etre, the
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method or expedient of the "fluid" or "power substance" (dravyopdya):"" "Without the power substance, there can be no realization (siddhi), and no enjoyment or pleasure. Without the power substance, men become dis embodied ghosts (pretas) when they die. They who employed inferior sub stances [i.e., who followed inferior doctrines] in life roam about blindly in the world of the dead." Following this introduction, however, the KCM suddenly becomes very much a Kriya Tantra, plunging directly into a very long description of a number of pills (gutikas) which render the user highly attractive to divine females (nymphs, yoginis, Gandharva maidens, and even Bhairavl herself) and eminently capable of satisfying their sexual desires. In this, it closely resembles discussions of magical "attraction" (dkarsana) and "the acquiring of a heavenly nymph" (yaksini-sadhana, strivasyam) found in works on tan tric sorcery. The highly evocative names of these gutikas are found in a number of later texts; the earlier RA describes one of these, the a?ttarasimdari ("Immortal Beauty") pill in some detail. Of much greater interest to the RA, however, is a pill that affords magical flight (khecarigiitika); and the KCM follows its instructions for the preparation of this and other aphrodisiacs with its own discussion of the same.182 From here, the KCM abruptly changes its orientation once again and launches into a long dis cussion of gold making (dhdtuvdda) through the use of mercury that has been treated with mica, herbs, and sexual fluids before returning, inexor ably, to its discussion of aphrodisiacs.183 Next, it lists the best nights of the year for meeting divine maidens (devakanyd), discusses the miraculous panacea called "rock water" (s'ailodaka), and describes the use of orpiment {haritala) and other mineral and plant substances in the preparation of elixirs.184 To this point in the text, it would be extremely difficult for an alchemist to carry out any of the operations described in the KCM for the simple reason that none of the basic principles of alchemy have been systemati cally explained: terminology, materiaeprimae, apparatus, procedures are all taken for granted. Now, over halfway through the work, the author seems to have second thoughts and undertakes a systematic exposition of the eighteen samskdras and a number of other fundamentals of his discipline. The samskara list is unusual inasmuch as neither transmutation nor bodily transubstantiation is enumerated; in their place, it names two operations not counted as samskdras in other works: vidhana ("apportioning") and marana ("killing"). Following this, it singles out eight of the eighteen oper ations as the "Eight Works." Its enumeration of these resembles that found
«54
Chapter Five in RA io.io-i2. 1 8 S In its expanded discussion of these eight procedures, the KCM describes the "class of enemies" {arivarga), i.e., minerals that at tack and "kill" each of the eight metals. Similar classifications are found in the later RC (4.50; 14.14 [ariloba]) and AK (7.28).186 Next follows a dis cussion of the purification of the secondary rasas, of which six are listed: there is no systematic description of the primary rasas.1*7 At this point, a commentary is inserted into the text of the KCM,im which continues intermittently until the conclusion of the work: a similar tippana is inserted at a similar point in the RM. Devotional praises of mercury and sulfur (or mica) in combination fol low, a commonplace that most alchemical tantras place in their opening chapter.189 A brief description of the four colors of mica is innovative in asmuch as it classifies the four colors (varnas) of mica according to "caste" (varna): white mica is brahman, red is ksatriya, yellow is vaisya, and black is sudra. A number of other works classify mercury in this way; the KCM is the sole early text to do so for mica.190 Hereafter, the KCM once more becomes a work on tantric sorcery and healing. A section on "skewing Time" (kala-vancana) describes a number of means by which to predict the future and revive the dead or dying. The use of a mixture of male and female sexual fluids (kundagolaka) constitutes a portion of a discussion on a rite through which the yogin may gain super natural powers and immortality. (The MBhT also gives a prominent place to the kundagolaka and other such cocktails; the RA and RM also use the term, but desexualize it into a combination of the herbal essences of the candali and raksasi plants).191 The KCM states that this rite renders the prac titioner a kavi;192 we will return to Siddha uses of this term in chapter ten. The work concludes with a long section on tantric healing through the use of herbs and mantras. One such mantra contains a long evocation of rsis (Kasyapa, Kapatu), gods (Surya), kings (Sugrlvaraja, the monkey ally of Rama), bhutas, and all manner of other creatures (water-goers, sky-goers . . . pisacas, dakints, etc.).193 In every manuscript version of the work I have consulted, these final folios are written in a curious mixture of Sanskrit and a vernacular in which many Hindustani words are recognizable (caval, set; suhag, atal, lasanu [= lesun?}, tkambhana hoi, etc.). Given the heterogeneous nature of this work, it is extremely difficult to date. While the concluding portion (which is likely a commentary by a later hand) is certainly quite recent, the KCM's treatment of much of the alchemical and other material appears to be quite archaic. In any case, some version of the KCM was already extant in the twelfth century, as it is cited in three twelfth- to
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thirteenth-century works on tantric sorcery: the Dattatreya Tantra (1.5), the RRA (5.1.7), and the KPT (1.9, which merely copies the RRA), all of which refer to it as the Kalacandesvaramata. At the same time, an apparent reference it makes to a fourteenth- to fifteenth-century work entitled the Rasasara and the presence of quite modern vernacular terms in its conclu sion make it clear that this is a text that was reworked over a period of several centuries, prior to taking its definitive form.194 d. Like the RHT the Rasopanisat (RU)195 is a Mahesvara Siddha work, concentrating more on transmutational and therapeutic alchemy than on the goal oijivanmukti through the use of alchemical elixirs. It is unique in comparing mercury to the atman, the individual soul (15.50), and in its praise of liberation (mukti) as the highest goal (1.5). Cast in the form of a dialogue between Mahadeva and ParvatI, it is datable to the twelfth to thir teenth century. It is a southwest Indian work, composed in Kerala.196 It purports to be an abridgment of a work entitled Mabodadbi;'97 both it and the Mahodadhi are named in the BPh (1.114), also a twelfth- to thirteenthcentury work. A number of other textual sources are cited in the same chapter (1.14): these are found in no other work.198 It describes a prepara tion discovered by Sriman Nagarjuna-muni (16.10): chapter colophons to the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century RM call that text the work of Sriman Nagarjuna. Elsewhere, the RU paraphrases a passage from the RA, in which mercury is compared to a wild elephant in rut, which can only be brought under control by the "elephant goad of mercury" (rasankusa). In the case of the RA, the elephant goad is a mantra identified with the al chemical goddess Rasaiikusi; in the RU, it is simply stated that mercury can be stabilized only through decoction (ghanat). The "elephant goad" is a commonplace tantric mantra, whose use makes sense in the context of the RA; borrowed as it is into the nontantric RU, the metaphor loses most of its impact.199 Rather than the usual eight, the RU (4.4-6) names only seven primary and secondary minerals and seven metals. Its presentation of the alchemical samskaras is also highly idiosyncratic, with only six of its samskaras corresponding to the standard terminology employed for the alchemical operations. Another six operations, which appear to correspond to more familiar samskaras, are presented under the heading of kiirpa, a term found nowhere else in the alchemical canon.200 The RU makes no mention of the final samskdra of transubstantiation. All of these idiosyncracies arise from the fact that this is a work that is relatively early and rather peripheral, both in geographic and sectarian terms, to tantric alchemy. e. As already stated a number of times, the most problematic element
[S6
Chapter Five
in the Bhutiprakarana (BhP) (Production of Supernatural Powers)-'"1 is its title. To this point I have generally referred to this work as "the so-called alchemical Goraksa Sathhitd"; this I have done because the sole edition of this work was published under that title, by Janardana Pandeya, in 1977. In fact, the chapter colophons to Pandeya's edition read: "here ends . . . the Siva Sutra, contained in the Bhuti-prakarana of the Goraksa Sainhitd in 100,000 verses, brought down [to earth] by Svacchanda-Sakti." This is in fact an abridgment of the colophon to what I have termed the "Sakta Goraksa Samhita" a work that is nearly identical to the Western Transmission work known as the Srimatottara Tatitra. The colophon to this work reads: "here ends .. . that section of the Kula-kaulini-mata (in 90 million verses, brought down [to earth] at the yoginis' secret Vidyapltha by Srlkantha) known as the Kadi section, which is included in the latter portion of the 100,000 verse Goraksa Samhita which was brought to earth by Svacchandasakti, who had received its seventy million-million [verses] from the most excellent Maha-manthana [-bhairava]."202 Here, we are in the presence of textual attribution carried to an exponential level. The BhP bears little or no connection to the Sakta work of the same name, save for the fact that the two are revealed by the same form of Siva (Srlkantha). It is, like nearly every alchemical work, a Saiva treatise (Siva Sutra); however, this mention is missing from chapter colophons of most of the manuscript versions that I have consulted. As for the claim that this work is a portion of the "Goraksa Samhita in 100,000 verses," a single verse (9.136), found at the end of Pandeya's manuscript, states that "the Nath made this [work] manifest for the benefit of king Sirhha," and quotes "the immortal Nath [named] Goraksa," and but does not make it clear that Gor aksa is the author of the work. These verses, moreover, are not found in every manuscript of this work.201 A rare alchemical reference to Gorakh is found in the ca. sixteenth-century Rasakdmadhenu (2.362-63), which cites a work entitled the Goraksamata (The Doctrine of Goraksa) in its descrip tion of the alchemical uses of a flower called hamsapada: this passage, how ever, is nowhere to be found in the BhP.104 The Svacchanda Sakti who is said to have brought the Goraksa Sarhhita down to earth is referred to but once in the work itself; however, a number of references to male Svacchanda deities and Svacchanda mantras indicate that this work belongs to the Svacchandabhairava canon (the cult of Svacchandabhairava was especially important in Kashmir, and the SvT was the principal work of the so-called Mantra Pltha).205 The title of this work, then, is Bhutiprakarana, and any connection between it and the two other
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so-called Goraksa Samhitds is, as has so often been the case in the annals of tantrism, a case of ex post facto attribution or "postscriptural systematization." On the other hand, an attribution of this work to a Rasa Siddha named Svacchandabhairava ought not to be rejected out of hand: in its opening chapter, the BhP intimates that it is an abridgment of a much longer Rasa Tantra revealed by Svacchanda.-'06 This is a work in nine chapters, presented in the form of a dialogue between Srlkantha and Uma. The latter's name is significant in this work, given that it refers to sulfur as umdyoni ("Uma's womb"). Also original, in certain manuscript versions, is the use of the term sarvaja ("born from [Rudra,J the Arrow").-'"" The mercurial Siva is also referred to as Paradesvara (5.27) and Rasesvara (5.289). The three Trika goddesses, Para, Apara, and Parapara, are also mentioned (1.106), as are the divine Mothers {jndtrkas) (6.281). The alchemist is to worship Bhairava and the circle of yoginis, as well as Ganesa, the regents of the cardinal directions, and brahmin maidens (3.7-8). Ritual sex is also prescribed.-'08 The BhP makes vague references to a number of tantric works and cor pora. It mentions the three srotas of the tantric corpus, as well as (a work entitled?) the Uttarottara Mdtnantra.2"" In addition to the Svacchanda for mulae, it describes a number of other mantras, including one that appears to refer to Matsyendra.210 It mentions the alchemist Nandi (9.134) and, in at least one manuscript, also makes mention of the [Rasa-] Ratndkara (RRA) (however, the RRA [4.4.100] names Goraksanath and his disciple Gahaninath).-'" It also cites the Rasopanisat and the Mahodadhi, both of which it attributes to the goddess Uma, and goes on to give titles of nonextant alchemical works authored by a number of divine alchemical Siddhas (of which two—Sukra and Brhaspati—are also mentioned in the RU).2[2 It is cited, under the title of Svacchandasaktyavatdra, in the fourteenthcentury Rasardjalaksmi of Visnudeva.2" These data would place the BhP in the twelfth to thirteenth century, which squares with an apparent reference to it by Somadeva, when he cites Srlkantha in his thirteenth-century RC (7.1). Its sole geographical references are to the Vindhya range (6.60), to a site "to the southeast of the Himalayas" (2.56), and to a (probably mythic) location called "Virgin Island" (kumdridvipa), where divine herbs abound (7-"3)In nearly every respect, the BhP is a garden-variety alchemical tantra. Its oft-repeated goals are siddhis, Sivahood, and sporting in the heavens with divine maidens;214 and its means to that end are a blend of alchemy, tantric worship, and devotion to mercurial Siva lingas and the Siddhas.215
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Significant in this regard is its quite frequent reference to mercury as dravya, the fluid or power substance, without which the use of mantras and other forms of worship are vain. In this, the BhP resembles the KCM, which it also follows in its numerous preparations in which menstrual blood is used.216 It also resembles the latter work in its frequent use of vernacular terms, of which one, khanepane (4.77), used as a synonym for siddhi, is also found in the RM, Matsyendra's Akulavira Tantra, and the Dattdtreya Tantra.1" Its aphorism on the powers of swooned, killed, and bound mercury (1.51) is a paraphrase of that found in the RA. The BhP devotes much of its seventh chapter to alchemical uses of the sixty-four divine herbs (divyausadhi), which it identifies, after an alchemical commonplace, with the sixty-four yoginis. These are said to grow in those places where Siva and the Goddess had sexual intercourse and are to be culled and used at certain specific times of the lunar month and the solar year.21" Its description of the construction and layout of the alchemical lab oratory and the qualities of laboratory assistants generally follow those found in the RA.219 The eight primary and secondary minerals (2.19, 28) and eight metals (2.31), as well as the eighteen alchemical samskdras (3.46), listed in the BhP correspond to those found in most alchemical sources.
drinking liquor" (1.8-10) to its paraphrase of that work's aphorism on the powers of swooned, bound, and killed mercury (1.28) and its discussion of the devotional cult of mercury (1.30-51). Chapter two's discussion of initiation, including instructions for the establishment of images of Rasabhairava and RasarikusI in the midst of an alchemical mandala (2.4-50) closely follows RA 2.4-8, 44-76. No fewer than forty verses in chapters ten through fourteen are borrowed from the seventh chapter of the RA.222 Somadeva is, nonetheless, original on a number of counts. His is the earliest work to contain the origin myth of mercury, as well as the descrip tion of a fantastic procedure for the extraction of mercury from its sub terranean "wells" (15.4-22). He is the first alchemical author to identify the nine gemstones (12.1) with the nine heavenly bodies (grahas), and the first to describe five types of alchemical transmutation, which correspond to the five elements (4.107-11). Curiously, he devotes very little attention to the ninth through sixteenth samskdras, preferring to concentrate on the ultimate operations of transmutation (vedha) and transubstantiation, which he terms sevana (15.28). Apart from the anonymous author of the RA, Somadeva is the most stylish of the alchemical authors. His work bears the stamp of a powerful personality.
f. The Rasendracuddmani (Crest-jewel of the Lord of Rasas) (RC) of Somadeva, a work in sixteen chapters, cites a great number of tenth- to thirteenth-century alchemical authors: Manthanabhairava, Nandi, Nagar juna, Bhairavacarya, Govinda, Bhaskara, Bhaluki, Srikantha, etc." 0 The RC is mentioned in the thirteenth-century RRA (1.10.51-61) and RPS (7.37; 9.11), and copied extensively by the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century RRS: it therefore dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century. Somadeva calls himself the lord of Karavala Bhairavapura, a name that corresponds to no known Indian toponym, either medieval or modern; however, Somadeva's mention of both Nagarjuna and Bhaskara, as well as a familiarity with Mount Abu "in the Gujarat region" (11.111) and the local Saurashtran term for a specific type of clay (11.49) indicate that he was from Gujarat.--'1
g. The Rasaprakds'a Sudhdkara (Effulgence of Mercury, Wellspring of Nectar) (RPS) of Yasodhara Bhatta is a work in thirteen chapters devoted to medicinal uses of mercurials and other alchemical preparations. Yasodhara's name figures in all the Rasa Siddha lists,"' and he mentions the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Somadeva (9.12) and opium: therefore his is a thirteenth-century work.- 4 Yasodhara states that he is a resident of the Saurashtran town of Jlrnabhidha, which likely corresponds to the modern toponym of Junagadh.225 In the opening verses of his work (1.1-4), he evokes a series of deities—Sarada, i.e., Sarasvatl; Ganapati, i.e., Ganesa; and Harihara. This last name is of course a reference to the conjoined Visnu-Siva, a god whose name is also evoked in the opening verses of the RHT (1.2). Given that Yasodhara identifies his father as a Vaisnava named Padmanabha ("Lotus-Navel," i.e., Visnu) of the Gaudlya (Srigauda) brah min lineage,226 we can be nearly certain that the author of the RPS was a Vaisnava, rather than a Saiva or Sakta alchemist. He refers to himself as a kavi and a kavivara (13.14-15).-'"
Somadeva states, on a number of occasions, that he is one of the greatest alchemists on the face of the earth, and that certain techniques are known to none save Siva, Nandikesvara, and himself. In spite of his self-assurance, Somadeva, like many before and after him, copies or paraphrases large por tions of earlier works, especially the RA. Chapter one closely follows the first chapter of the RA in structure and content, from its evocation of the Kaulas (1.6-7, J I _ I 5 ) a n d its discussion of "eating the flesh of the cow and
In spite of Yasodhara's probable Vaisnavism, his account of the divine origin of mercury (1.5-12) is based on the standard Saiva myth of the birth of Skanda. Enumerations of the eighteen alchemical samskdras (1.30-164)
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and the eight principal (5.2-3) and secondary (6.1) rasas are unexceptional. Chapter eight includes descriptions of the preparations called svacchandabhairava rasa (8.132-33) and manthanabhairava rasa (8.173-74). ^n chapter nine, Yasodhara's enumeration of the sixty-four divine herbs (divyausadhis) is based, by his own admission (9.11), on Somadeva's RC. An unusually long list of forty yantras is presented in chapter ten; chapter eleven is devoted to gold making. Chapters twelve and thirteen are devoted to Ayurvedic techniques of vajikarana. In addition to Somadeva, Yasodhara mentions Bhairava (7.26), Nagarjuna (5.107), and Nandi (6.73). h. Because of the corrupt nature of the manuscript he consulted, P. C. Ray mistook the RM for the Rasaratnakara (Mine of Cemstones and Rasas) (RRA), which he attributed to Nagarjuna. As already noted, the thirteenthcentury RRA was authored by Nityanatha Siddha, who says as much (1.1.25) and who names Nagarjuna in an opening verse of his work (1.1.17a). In the same passage, he also mentions the Rasarnava of "Sambhu."228 It is also in the RRA (3.1.66-70) that we find an alternate (to the RM/RRS [a]) list of Rasa Siddhas, a list that notably includes Carpati (whose name is absent from the RM/RRS [a] list); the RRA (1.1.17b) also cites a work by Carpati, entitled Svargavaidya-kdpdlika.22'' The RRA is a later work than the KCM as well as the RC, both of which it cites;230 but is earlier than the RAK, which cites it,-'" and the RRS and AK, which borrow from it extensively. I have already indicated the ubiquity of Nityanatha Siddha, "son of Parvatl," as the tantric author of works on alchemy, batha yoga, and tantric sorcery, and as a name figuring in both Rasa Siddha (RRS) and yogic Sid dha (HYP) lists. I have also surmised that Nityanatha Siddha may have been a Nath Siddha polymath, after the fashion of the founder Gorakhnath, whom he names in RRA 4.4.100. (He also names Gahananatha,232 who, if he is the same figure as the Gahaninatha who was Gorakh's dis ciple—and Jnanesvara's guru's guru—in Maharashtran Nath Siddha lin eages, offers further proof that this is a late thirteenth-century Nath Sid dha text, likely from Maharashtra). The contents of the RRA, while they betray the author's interest and expertise in the fields of tantric alchemy and sorcery, as well as Ayurvedic therapy, make no reference to hathayogic techniques. Nityanath sets forth the agenda to his very prolix work in his opening verses (RRA 1.14b-6a): "This treatise in five sections (khandas) is offered for the benefit of practitioners; [for the benefit of] Ayurvedic physicians (vaidyas) in the [first] Rasa division; [that of] the afflicted in the [second] Rasendra [division]; theoreticians in the [third] Vada division;
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[and] the aged in the [fourth] Rasayana [division]. Supernatural power of an alchemical order (rasa-siddhi) is proffered for the sake of [tantric] advi sors in the [fifth] Mantra division."2" The Rasa and Vada divisions of the RRA, composed of ten and twenty chapters or "teachings" (upadesas) respectively, treat for the most part of the operations proper to transmutational (dhdtuvada) alchemy, while the Rasendra division, seventy-one chapters in length,2'4 treats of therapeutic (rogavada) alchemy. The Rasayana division, eight chapters in length, is a discussion of elixir (dehavada) alchemy, save its concluding chapter, which is a panegyric of the alchemical wonderland of Sri Parvata (Srisailam) and the alchemical practices specific to that site. Much of the final Siddha or Mantra division of the RRA appears to have been borrowed, more or less piecemeal, into the KPT of Siddha Nagarjuna. This is made manifestly clear in KPT 1.13a, which states: "This is called the Mantra division (mantra-khanda) [which is offered] for the welfare of practitioners." The same half verse is found in the Mantra Khanda of the RRA (5.1.11a), where the statement makes perfect sense. The twenty-seven chapters of the Mantra division become condensed into twenty chapters in the KPT; however, the chapter order of the two is quite identical. Even if it is divided into fewer chapters, the KPT is substantially longer than the Mantra Khanda of the RRA, again indicating that it is a later expansion Nityanatha's work.235 Given that the RM cites the KPT, we must conclude that it too is a later work than the RRA: therefore, the Rasa Mangala named in RRA 1.1.16b cannot be the same work as the RM. Nityanatha Siddha makes a number of statements that are more or less unique to this alchemical source. He mentions both the necessity of be longing to an order (sampradaya), and states that his work is a blend of his guru's teachings and his own practical experience (1.1.21a, 22a). Else where, he states that the alchemical teachings were received directly, by the Siddhas, from Siva's mouth; this mystical technique has been kept hidden in the writings of their order, which he has himself surveyed (3.1.9-10). Then follows an oft-repeated aphorism, of which Nityanatha appears to be the original source: "Neither sequence (oral teachings) without written sources nor written sources without sequence [are acceptable]. Knowing the written sources to be conjoined with sequence (oral teachings), the per son who then practices [alchemy] partakes of the siddbis""6 Nityanatha's discussion of Srisailam (4.8.1-185) is by far his most inno vative contribution to the alchemical literature: that this is the Saiva center in western Andhra Pradesh is clearly proven by references to the jyothiinga
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of Mallikarjuna (4.8.2, 5, 129, 135, 173) that is the heart of the cultus there. His catalog of alchemical wonders at a number of sites (a grove called Kadall Vana, pools, wells, etc.) is by far the most comprehensive of its genre. Elsewhere (i.i.i2a-i3a), he expands on an aphorism first introduced in R4 10.29 a n d compares various types of mercury with the gods Brahma, Visnu (Janardana), Rudra, Mahesvara, and Sadasiva. These last two names for Siva would appear to indicate that Nityanatha's pantheon was that of or thodox Saiva Siddhanta; yet his alchemy, concerned with jivanmukti as an end in itself rather than a means to the orthodox end of moksa, betrays a more heterodox orientation. Elsewhere, he also mentions Manthanabhairava (4.3.197). Explicit references to the perfection of the human body as the alchemist's highest goal (4.1.2), to sexual relations with menstruating women as a suggested adjunct to work in the laboratory (4.1.4a; 4.3.197199), and to cremation ground rites (4.4.113) reinforce this emphasis, as does the entirety of the Mantra or Siddha Khanda, which is wholly devoted to the subject of tantric sorcery.
text (4.28) mentions only Himalayan and eastern Indian toponyms.239 Its title and strong emphasis on the cult of the Goddess make this a SaktaSaiva Tantra. The MBbT, a work in fourteen chapters, is cast as a dialogue between Sarikara and the goddess Candika. Of its twelve chapters, three (chapters five, eight, and nine) are devoted, in the main, to alchemy. Here, however, the use of mercurials is not presented as an end in itself, but rather as a means to the higher end of ritual devotion to Siva and the Goddess. At the heart of this devotion is the worship of Siva in the form of a mercurial linga, the mercury of which has been stabilized and calcinated with men strual blood. No alchemical Tantra is as attentive to the miraculous powers of uterine or menstrual blood as the MBbT It classifies this fluid (dravya) into six types—according to the age, marital status, and sexual experience of the woman in question—and invokes its use in a number of practices, both ritual and alchemical.240 The use the MBbT makes of the term dravya—to refer to both sexual emissions and mercury as "power substances"—parallels usages we have already noted in the RA, KCM, and BbP. Chapter four of the MBbT is de voted to the worship of Camunda Kalika, whose name evokes that of Kakacamunda, one of the names by which Kakacandesvari is identified: there is, moreover, a certain symmetry between the Candika of the MBbT and the Kaka-cand-esvarl of the KCM. The MBbT is thoroughly conversant with the subtle body of hatha yoga and includes extended discussions of the cakras, the "nine doors" (9.20), and the kundalini. Here, the MBbT follows mainstream tantric discourse when it states that the alcohol, flesh, fish, etc. ritually consumed by the practitioner are offerings to the Goddess who, dwelling within the subtle body in the form of the kundalini, rises up to the practitioner's tongue, in order to enjoy them. The miiladhara cakra, in which the kundalini dwells, is identified with the Goddess's pitha of Kamarupa.241
Nityanatha appears to follow the lead of the RA in his discussions of alchemical worship and initiation, the ideal guru, disciple, and female labo ratory assistant, etc.: he is in turn copied by Vagbhatta II, author of the RRS. The RRA 's rendering of the classical aphorism concerning the pow ers of swooned, killed, and bound mercury (1.1.24) may be the source from which the RM borrows most direcdy; the RM also appears to follow Nitya natha who, in the final verses of this chapter, discusses the dosas of mercury and suggested quantities of mercury to be employed in the alchemical op erations (1.1.250-333). The RRA lists no fewer than twelve metals (1.8.1-2), among which it includes three alloys and iron rust. On the basis of Nityanatha's n a m e , evo cations of Gorakhnath and Gahaninath, his emphasis on the practitioner's adherence to a sampradaya, his inclusion in the HYP, and the o t h e r yogic and tantric works attributed to him, I am inclined to think that Nityanath was a Nath Siddha who lived slightly later than Gorakhnath but earlier than the BhP that is attributed to the latter.237 i. The Matrkabheda Tantra (MBbT) is, on at least two counts, a singu lar work in the annals of tantric alchemy. On the one hand it is, in the ful lest sense of the term, a Siddha alchemical work, combining the standard theoretical, yogic, ritual, and behavioral components of practice with al chemy.238 On the other, it is the sole Hindu work containing significant alchemical data to be a clearly eastern Indian product. Most manuscripts of the MBbT are found in Bengal, and a list of sacred waters found in the
Worship of Siva in the form of a linga is central to this work, with the mercurial linga being the optimum type. Neither worship, nor ritual, nor alchemy is effective without the use of mantras, to which the MBbT de votes much attention.242 The work also discusses the importance of the guru, the establishment of lakes, reservoirs, and temples, and various rules of worship—the standard subject matter of a Tantra. The practitioner who follows its instructions gains siddhis and becomes a "Siddha who is the manifest equal of Siva."243 The MBbT mentions the eighteen Puranas, and cites the Kali Tantra, Nitya[sodasika] Tantra (= Vamakesvara Tantra, which
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the tenth century. On the other hand, "Nagarjuna" may have been—as was the case with Matsyendra—a title applied to alchemists who had reached a certain level of expertise, in which case we should not be surprised to be confronted by a host (gana, the title of chapter eight of the RM) of Nagarjunas! In any case, the premise for all of these speculations—i.e., that the Nagarjuna in the text of the RM was a historical figure—may itself be groundless. Following its table of contents, the RM launches into a praise of mer cury, stating that "through the use of the mercurial method (rasendrayogat), one becomes a superioryogin on this earth, surpassing even the Lord [Siva] (natha-atitulya)": Siva is called "Lord" (natha) in a number of pas sages in this work.-52 Hereafter, the work lists the impurities present in mercury and gives an incomplete list of the alchemical operations, which it calls the "eighteen Works" (karmdnyastadas'a), and gives the suggested quantities of mercury to be used in these operations.-51 Chapter two begins with a description of the "Kapalika method" for the liquification of gemstones, a technique this work borrows directly from the RA.2S4 The same chapter concludes with another seminal teaching, cribbed from the RA (7.151): "killed metals become adequate for internal use."255 This is precisely the subject of the third chapter, i.e., therapeutic uses of herbal and mercurial preparations and elixirs, most of which bear the names of Saiva or Sakta deities.256 Chapter three concludes with a long section on eye medicines (anjana), for which, it will be recalled, a ca. fifthcentury Nagarjuna was renowned.257 It is in the very long chapter four of the RM that we find nearly all of the "Buddhist legend" and the borrowings from the RA discussed above.258 This chapter, on the subject of mercurial gutikas, gives a description of the same "Immortal Beauty" pill referred to in the RA and KCM; the RM preparation differs slightly from that of the two other texts.259 It is also in this chapter that we find a list of the eight primary rasas, although lists of the secondary rasas and metals are lacking.260 A long section in this chapter, devoted to the use of "leech-bound" mercury (i.e., treated mercury whose consistency is that of a leech), placed in the vagina as a female aphrodisiac, appears to be an expansion on a similar discussion found in the KCM.26' The latter portion of this chapter has already been discussed at some length. Following the RA, it stipulates that mercury that has been cal cinated six times in sulfur is optimal for transmutation and transubstantiation.262 Like the KCM, the KJnN, and most other Siddha works, it devotes
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some space to "skewing Time" (kdla-vancana).2" It makes mention of the tantric worship of a virgin and of the dravya "power-substance" to be em ployed therein.264 Following chapter four in the Paris-Bikaner manuscripts of this work are several folios which neither correspond in their contents to any of the final four chapters of the work nor have a name given to them in the final colophon of these manuscripts. Contained in this "appendix" are an autocommentary (tippana),26$ a verse borrowed from the RHT (1.2), and the list of the twenty-seven Rasa Siddhas which is borrowed directly into the RRS. As noted above, this auto-commentary is similar to that found in the KCM and is basically a companion to the work as a whole, giving the five names for mercury (including s'arvaja,266 a term also found in the BhP, but no where else), types of female laboratory assistants, etc. Until the critical edi tion of this work appears, the authenticity of this final section is open to doubt. k. The Rasaratnasamucchaya (Amassing of Rasas and Gemstones) (RRS) of Vagbhatta II is a thirteenth- to fourteenth-century work in thirty chap ters, of which fourteen (1-11, 28-30) are alchemical or iatrochemical and sixteen (12-27) a r e Ayurvedic. In spite of its great prestige this is, at least in its alchemical content, a highly derivative text. Its first chapter is, for the most part, a patchwork of passages cribbed from the RA, RM, and espe cially the RHT.267 Of its remaining alchemical chapters, much of their con tent is a transparent adaptation of the RC of Somadeva and the RRA of Nityanatha.268 Its mention of the Yadava king Sirighana (d. A.D. 1220) and of opium support a mid-thirteenth-century date; if, as some commentators maintain, it borrows eleven verses (5.132-142) from the ca. A.D. 1375 Rasaratnapradipa of Ramaraja, then it is a late fourteenth-century work.269 1. The Anandakanda (AK) (The Root of Bliss), the most encyclopedic work of the entire Hindu alchemical canon, is a massive text, over six thou sand verses in length. In its colophons, it calls itself the work of Bhairava; the apparent referent here is the tantric god, given that the entirety of the text is cast as a dialogue between Bhairava and Bhairavi. T\ieAK'\s divided into two sections, curiously called "recreations" or "places of repose" (visrantis), which are subdivided into a total of thirty-six chapters and an appendix. The second section, entitled "work" (kriyd) is essentially devoted to the chemistry of metals and gemstones. The first section, entitled "nec tar making" (amrtikarana), may be termed a Siddha alchemical text, con taining as it does chapters on both alchemical and hathayogic (chapters 20
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and 21) techniques for the realization of bodily immortality, a chapter (12) on the alchemical wonders of Srisailam, discussions of initiation, etc. As already noted, it is in this work that the sole attempt is made to fuse the Nath Siddhas together with the Rasa Siddhas: this is, from a history of religions standpoint, the AK's greatest innovation. In spite of its dual emphasis on alchemy and hathayoga, the AK is, prop erly speaking, less a work on Siddha alchemy than an encyclopedic work, which incorporates and synthesizes (i.e., copies and paraphrases) all that falls within its fourteenth-century purview. So it is that the AK's anony mous author also incorporates extended discussions of Ayurvedic elixir therapy, seasonal dietary regimens, and a number of other ancillary topics into his work. It has generally been maintained, mainly on the strength of the fact that its three original manuscript sources are housed in south Indian collec tions, that the AK is a south Indian work.270 This is further supported by the inclusion, in the AK's Siddha lists, of names whose origins are clearly south Indian (iMulanatha, Revana, Koiikanesvara, etc.). If this is a south Indian work, however, it likely emerged from the Deccan plateau rather than either of the southern coastal regions: the seasonal cycles it describes in chapter nineteen correspond to a temperate and continental (versus a tropical and coastal) climate. It is also possible that this chapter, like so much of the rest of this work, is a wholesale borrowing from external (and northern) sources. The AK is most ingenious in its ability to inflate the content of passages it borrows from other alchemical works, most especially the RA, RR.4, RC, and RRS. Of these, the RRA is the AK's prime source. So, for example, the AK chapter (1.12.1-200) on Srisailam is borrowed nearly piecemeal from ^^4.8.1-185.- 7 1 It contains the standard origin myth of sulfur (1.13.3-24) as well as of mercury (1.1.8-2 3: an expansion on that found in RRS 1.6066); its mythic description of the extraction of mercury (1.1.53-62) from its well in "Cinnabar-Land" also expands on the RRS (1.85-88) account of the same. Instructions for the worship of Rasabhairava, RasarikusI, the ten DutTs, the eight Vidyesvaras, theyogints, and Kubjika (1.2.165) rely heavily on the rasamandala of the RA (2.53-72). Whereas most alchemical works list six to nine metals, the AK lists twelve (2.1.9); it lists twenty-three, rather than the standard eight uparasas (2.1.4-8). Its list of the "eighteen" samskaras does not include "body work (s'arira yoga); appended to it are a list of subsidiary operations. The AK s (2.9.1-97) discussion of the sixty-four divine herbs (divyansadhts) is bor-
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rowed directly from the RC (6.1-72). Its discussions of the use of mantra, yantra, nyasa, etc. are likewise more prolix than those found in other al chemical sources. Its chapters on hathayoga make no mention of Gorakhnath or any other Siddha; the content of these chapters is, however, clearly inspired by the Goraksa Sataka and the other works of "six-limbed" yoga that it spawned.272 Its description of the meditation hut (kutt) is similar to that of Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy, inasmuch as it is a threefold struc ture (1.21.4-5). As in many other alchemical sources, the ^AT lists its Rasa (and Nath) Siddhas in a worship context: they are the recipients of water offerings in the "conventional initiation" (samaya dlksa) section of the work.27' Graphic representations of the nine Naths and sixteen Siddhas are also to be figured, together with the eight Puranic (and not Tantric) Bhairavas, the sixty-fouryoginls, and other deities, on the outer walls of the medi tation hut (1.21.71-74). m. The small gem entitled Khecari Vidyd (KhV) (The Aviator's Science; or The Arcane Science of Flight) is, in spite of its relatively late date, a paradigmatic text of the Siddha alchemical tradition. Unlike the AK— whose encyclopedic content encompasses alchemy, hatha yoga, and nearly everything else under the medieval sun—the KhV never strays from its single object. The object in question, the siddhi of human flight, is treated in an extensive and generally derivative way: the KhV draws, for the most part, on preexisting hathayogic traditions. What is original about the KhV is its triadic focus, on hathayogic, erotico-mystical, and alchemical tech niques for the realization of its end, a focus I have previously qualified as the "Siddha distinction." The KhV a work in four chapters and 285 verses attributed to Adinatha, generally calls itself, in its manuscript colophons, a portion of a work en titled the Mahakdlayogas'dstra. Two late medieval commentators, Brahmananda and Narayana, refer to a work of the same title as a treatise on hatha yoga: they are presumably referring as well to the KhV274 This not withstanding, every manuscript of this work that I have found calls itself the KhV2''5 The sole works that the KhV itself cites are called "Mabakala" and "Martandam Viveka." The latter of these is the Yogamartanda or Vivekamartanda of Gorakhnath, a work that is, in the main, an expansion on the Goraksa Sataka. As for the former, if it is not the Mahakdlayogas'dstra itself, it may be the Mahakala Sainhita, a "Kapalika" work also attributed to "Ad inatha"!276 There exist south Indian recensions of the Kh V which comprise only the first chapter of northern versions; this first chapter is moreover often reproduced as the second chapter of the Yogakundall Upanisad. Else-
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where, three verses of the KhV are reproduced in the fifteenth-century HYP (3.3 3-3 5) " 7 in the light of which evidence we may conclude that the KhV is a fourteenth-century north Indian work. The / a ^ b e g i n s with a praise of itself ( L 1-28), followed by an account of the khecari mantra (1.29-40). The balance of the first chapter is devoted to a discussion of the mechanical preparations for and hathayogic practice of the so-called khecarimudra (1.41-74)" 8 The second and longest chapter is an extended description of the siddhis, as well as of the subtle b o d y - t h e cakras, nadis, kalas, etc. A portion of this chapter (2.81-97) describes the effects of hathayogic practice on the humors (dosas) of Ayurvedic theory. Chapter three discusses the raising of the kundalini, her union, in the cra nial vault, with Siva, who is figured as an internal linga, and the realization, on the part of the practitioner, of bodily liberation. This is described in terms of the reintegration, or telescoping back into their subtler essences, of the five elements (3.49-52). It is, however, by virtue of its short final chapter that the KhV stands as a paradigmatic Siddha alchemical text. This emphasis is clearly stated in the chapter's opening verse: "I will now speak of the 'divine herbal medi cines' (divyanyausadhani). Without herbal medicines, absolutely no siddbn can be realized." A short way into its discussion of these "herbal medicines, however, the KhV recommends the consumption of "mercury, sulfur, orpiment, and realgar," the mineral mainstays of elixir alchemy. T h e w o r k concludes (4.13) with the following statement: "Having risen at daybreak one should eat a decoction of mercury, the sap of the silk-cotton tree, and sulfur, [blended] together with the three sweets [honey, sugar, and butter]. In the space of six months, one becomes unaging and immortal." T his is precisely the regime of the Yogis described by Francois Bernier, aregime which, taken in the morning, "restored the body to perfect health."2'
SIX
Tantra in the Rasarnava
1. Chapter One of the Rasarnava: T h e Text in Its Tantric Context As we have already noted, the use of alchemical imagery was, for several centuries, a pervasive fixture of both Hindu and Buddhist tantrism. This chapter looks at this phenomenon from another perspective and examines what the alchemists themselves had to say about Kaula and Sakta tantrism. No alchemical source has more to say on tantric theory and practice in general, and the Kaulas in particular, than does the eleventh-century RA, decidedly the greatest work of tantric alchemy. More than any other, this source attests to the highly cosmopolitan na ture of the alchemical tradition. Written in a quite grammatical Sanskrit, this text, while it was likely authored in western India, appears to be, like many of the alchemical classics, the production of a quite homogeneous— albeit geographically widespread—tradition. This homogeneity may be at tributed in part to the sociology of alchemical knowledge to which I al luded in previous chapters: the authors of these texts were most probably court-based brahmin physicians to Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim rulers.1 What sets the RA apart from all other alchemical works, indeed, from the great majority of the Hindu Tantras in general, is the rhetorical flourish its author gives to its opening chapter. I therefore reproduce, as much for their style as for their content, a number of excerpts from this introductory diatribe, in which the alchemical gnosis is favorably compared and con trasted to the other philosophical and religious schools and movements of the day. Our author begins to delineate his position in the fourth verse of this chapter. The Goddess (Devi), Bhairava's interlocutor, addressing him for the first time, says, "O God among gods, O Great God, O incinerator of Time and Love, O leader [s'dsaka] of the Kaula, Mahakaula, Siddhakaula, etc. lineages!"-' This introduction immediately reminds us of the sectarian Pedigree of Matsyendra: a member of the Siddha Kaula and heir to the 'T
'7 =
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Mahakaulas, he was the founder of the YoginT Kaula: the author of the A'. / is thereby claiming a similar pedigree for his work.' Me nuances his posi tion, however, in a number of later verses, in which he unambiguously con demns what he considers to be excessive practices on the part of some tantric groups. So, for example, in verse 10 he states that "if liberation is to be identified with the excitation of the female genitalia, would not even donkeys be lib erated? Indeed, why are rams and bulls not liberated?"4 And two verses later: "If liberation came from utilizing one's semen, urine, and excre ments, which of the races of dogs and swine would not be liberated?"5 And in verse 24: "For those people who have lost their powers of reason through indulgence in liquor, flesh, sexual intercourse, and the male and female organs, the mercurial science is exceedingly difficult to realize.'"' The two verses that immediately follow (1.25-26) are placed in counter point to all that has preceded: "However (tu), mercury is not perfected by those who lack the teaching of the [true] lineage (kula) and who have no desire for the true doctrine. They, O Goddess, are [like men] drinking a mirage.7 He who eats cow meat [and] who drinks the liquor of immortality, him I consider to be one of the kula [and] a knower of rasa. Other rasa experts are inferior."8 At first blush, we would appear to be in the presence of a text that con tradicts itself. The truth is of a somewhat more subtle order, however. The attacks on the excessive indulgence in erotico-mystical practices and the fire makaras are just that: Siva's alchemical revelation is, generally speaking, a "post-Trika reformation" one. Following the lead of Matsyendra and per haps Abhinavagupta in toning down the more extreme mortuary and erotic elements of earlier tantrism, this alchemical Tantra presents itself as a "meta-Sakta-Saiva" work, superior not only to orthodox Saiva Siddhanta, but also to the practices of the earlier Kula and prereform Kaulism. As noted in a previous chapter, the author of the RA does consider the alchemical school to constitute a lineage, a line of transmission (kula) with a &ftA7-teaching of its own. " Because the lineage nectar of the alchem ical lineage (sampradaya) is,KI like that of other tantric sects, transmitted through female sexual emissions (called siddhadravya in the AM), he also prescribes sexual intercourse and erotico-mystical worship as means to al chemical transformation (with an exception made for yogins, who are ad monished to remain celibate in their preparation of mercury)." Klsewhere, a female "laboratory assistant" (and, especially, her sexual and menstrual
fluids) is crucial to the alchemist's practice.'-' However, "the fluid" (dravya) is to be withheld from "other women" (paradarat).n It is, however, with our author's mention of the heterodox tantric mat ters of eating cow meat (gomamsa) and drinking the liquor of immortality (amaravaruni) that the light truly dawns. Such expressions are common places of the "code language" of hathayoga. As a commentator explains on the subject of an identical passage in the fifteenth-century HYP, these two terms actually refer to the exalted practice of khecari ntudra, whereby the yogin internally absorbs his own semen, which has been transmuted into nectar through yogic practice.'4 Neither meat nor alcohol is actually being consumed; here, the reference is to the hathayogic complement to alchemi cal operations, a complementarity that is the hallmark of "the [alchemicalj Work in two parts."'5 The tantric alchemist tempers his tantrism and sublimates certain Kaula erotico-mystical practices with hathayogic and laboratory techniques (even if many of these are called kapalika techniques).16 This sublimation, of the male and female sexual essences so vital to the yogini cults of the Vidya Pitha, into mineral essences to be manipulated by the alchemist, is clearly stated by Siva: "You, O Goddess, are the mother of all beings, and I am the eternal father, and that which was generated from the great sexual union of us two, that is rasa."17 The hathayogic component of tantric alchemy will concern us through out much of the balance of this book; let us first, however, take a longer look at those elements of the RA which may be designated as properly "tantric." As I will presently demonstrate, the R.A remains mainstream in its tantrism, in its use of jnantra, yantra, initiation, worship, etc. At the same time, it purports to be superior to both the orthodox Siva Siddhanta and the more heterodox Kaula forms of Tantra in the results it promises. For, whereas the former can offer liberation only at death and the latter liberation only in life, tantric alchemy offers certain, verifiable bodily im mortality in life, an immortality whose effects are enduring.18 The opening benediction of the RA sets the tone of the entire work: "He in whom everything [dwells], from whom everything [is issued], who is everything and everywhere, who is all-encompassing and eternal, salu tations to that universal soul!"' 9 Following the Goddess's salutation, Siva's first words speak to the goals of every nondualist tantric practitioner, re gardless of sectarian affiliation: "Eternal youth, immortality of the body, and the attainment of an identity of nature with Siva, that is, liberation in
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the body (jivanmnkti), which is difficult even for the gods to attain."20 From here, the god launches into a condemnation of all other forms of religious practice, reserving his greatest scorn for the six major schools of phi losophy—the philosophical foundations of nontantric Hinduism—which equate liberation with release from the body (i.e., which assume that libera tion is realized only after death):-'1
female consort. Therefore, the alchemist is to worship a mercurial linga, the phallic emblem of Siva, visualizing it as embodying the eighteen-armed Rasa-Bhairava and his consort RasarikusI-BhairavT. Of course, this mercu rial linga, the support for such worship, is composed the stuff of Siva him self, i.e., of rasa, mercury.30 The alchemist's Rasa-Bhairava is an ectype of the eighteen-armed Svacchanda Bhairava, the deity of the Svacchanda Tantra (SvT).il It is on the subject of this icon and its mercurial content that the RA and a number of other alchemical works wax the most eloquent in praises that bear all the marks of Hindu devotionalism. The most propitious days for worship are the eighth and fourteenth days of the bright lunar fort night; in addition to worship on these fixed dates, the observance of a spe cial "alchemical celebration" (rasotsava) also produces miraculous results.52 Viewing, touching, eating, recalling, worshipping, and making an offering to mercury yield six types of fruits. The merit one gains from viewing all of the lingas in the world (including Kedarnath) is gained from the mere viewing of mercury. By worshipping Siva in the form of calcinated mer cury, with sandalwood, camphor, and saffron, one attains Siva's heaven, Sivaloka. Eating mercury destroys the triad of sins (in word, deed, and thought), afflictions, and morbid states. The combined fruits that one might gain from worshipping one thousand of Siva's self-generated (svayambhu) lingas is reaped 100,000-fold by worshipping the rasa-linga of Siva.33 But woe to those ignorant persons who do have no faith in mercury, or who speak ill of it: they will suffer 1,000 rebirths as dogs, 300,000 as cats, 100,000 as donkeys, 100,000 as crows, 100,000 as worms, 100,000 as wild cocks, and 100,000 as vultures!34 It is to this cult of mercury that a number of authors refer when they identify rasacikitsa "chemiatry," i.e., the worship of chemicals.35
The liberation that occurs when one drops dead22 is indeed a worth less liberation. [For in that case] a donkey is also liberated when he drops dead. Liberation is indeed viewed in the six schools as [oc curring] when one drops dead, but that [kind of] liberation is not immediately perceptible, in the way that a myrobalan fruit in the hand [is perceptible] (karamalakavai)P The concrete emphasis of the alchemical quest is hereafter emphasized repeatedly: Liberation [arises] from gnosis (Jndna), gnosis [arises] from the main tenance of the vital breaths. Therefore, where there is stability, mer cury is empowered and the body is stabilized. Through the use of mercury one rapidly obtains a body that is unaging and immortal, and concentration of the mind.24 He who eats calcinated mercury (mrtamtaka) truly obtains both transcendent and mundane knowl edge, and his ?nantras are effective.25 Supernatural powers and bodily immortality, the goals of the tantric practitioner, cannot, however, be realized through alchemy alone. The ab solute, Siva, too plays an active role in alchemical transformation: "So long, however, as Siva does not descend to block the impurity that impedes the soul's liberation, and so long as one's fetters to this world remain un cut, there is no way that true discrimination can arise through the use of calcinated mercury."26 Divine grace implies its human complement of de votion (bhakti), which is also present in the alchemical synthesis, even if such is unusual to tantrism, which places a greater emphasis on ritualized forms of worship (puja, upasana) than it does upon devotionalism.2. To which gods does the alchemist offer his devotion and worship? Not surprisingly, the divine revealers of the RA single themselves out, at the conclusion of the first chapter of the work, as the prime objects of the alchemist's worship: these are Rasa-Bhairava, the "Mercurial Bhairava,"2* and RasaiikusT-BhairavT, "Bhairavl, the Elephant Goad of Mercury."2 Bhairava is, of course, one of the tantric names for Siva, and Bhairavl is his
In addition to such external forms of devotional worship, the RA also discusses external worship of a distinctly tantric stamp, as well as internal worship, mainly in the context of alchemical initiation, diksa.™
2. Alchemical Mandalas in Chapter Two of the Rasarnava We must not hastily conclude from so much sound and fury on the matter of the rasalinga that Siva in his mercurial and phallic form was the sole god in the alchemical universe. If the alchemical tradition was a tantric one, then it too should have had a number, nay a pantheon, of supporting deities
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in its micro- and macrocosms, and this it in fact does, as the second and third chapters of the RA reveal with a multitude of details. As in nearly ever)' Hindu tantric sect, all the gods of the alchemical pantheon are either forms of Siva, his divine consort the Goddess, or one of their divine attendants. Because the specific names of these deities evoked in the alchemical sources are so mam indications of the various sectarian ties of the alchemical school, it behooves us to dwell on these for a moment. The RA compares mercury, inasmuch as it incorporates the five elements, with the five-faced Sadasiva.'7 As already noted, however, RasaBhairava, the supreme divinity of the RA, is an ectype of Svacchanda Bhairava (whose cult is mentioned explicitly in the BhP).is Indeed, the RA's icon ography of Rasa-Bhairava, including his enthronement upon the mahdpreta Sadasiva strongly indicates that the cult of Svacchanda Bhairava is its im plicit model. As noted in the last chapter, however, the RA and such texts as the BhP, XlBhT, and KCM are also possessed of an important Sakta com ponent, referring on numerous occasions to the circle of the Mother God desses and Yoginls and the erotico-mystical ritual associated with this con figuration. The worship of the Yoginls and tantric forms of the Goddess are also evoked at a number of points in the RA.i9 A highly refined current of nondualist Sakta tantrism was the Trika Kaula of the Eastern Transmission, the purvdmnaya, so called for its cultic focus on a triad (tri-) of goddesses named Para, Apara, and Parapara.4" No doubt taking its lead from the Trika, the RA incorporates these three god desses, together with a fourth, MalinI," into a complex mandala, which it instructs the alchemist to construct for the external and internal tantric worship of Rasabhairava and the goddess RasankusI.42 This diagram, whose concrete support consists of a square stone slab measuring ten hand widths on each side, serves a dual purpose. It is to be used both for the conse cration of the newly constructed alchemical laboratory and for the sake of gaining alchemical siddhis." Its form is that of a lotus composed of two concentric sets of petals ringing a central pericarp, with the whole sur rounded by the standard four-sided, four-gated bhupura enclosure. In the lotus's pericarp, as well as on each of its petals and at the articulations of the bhupura, are placed the entire host of the RA's alchemical pantheon, into the heart of which we now descend. The alchemist begins his construction of this diagram, at the heart of his laboratory, with the installation of a rasaliiiga, composed of mercury (rasa). Simultaneously with his installation of this concrete image, he uses the "Elephant Goad of Mercury" mantra to establish the alchemical god
Rasabhairava in sexual union with his consort RasankusI within his own body.44 Following the installation of this divine pair, the alchemist con structs his mandala, mentally and concretely, from the outside in,4' starting at the bhupura. On either side of each of the four gateways of this enclosure, he installs and worships eight demonic and semidivine Saiva guardians, while at each of its eight cardinal points within the enclosure, he installs and worships an array of seven Puranic gods together with the goddess Uma.4" Working inwards, he installs and worships, on the petals of an outer lotus, the ten female attendants (dfitis), whose names are nothing other female adjectival forms of alchemical processes and potencies.47 On the petals of the same lotus he worships the eight principal mineral reagents (mahdrasas)—all "male" in gender—that are employed, in combination with mercury, in the processes of transmutation.48 On the petals of an inner lotus, he installs eight Rudras—who are to be identified with the eight "Lords of Wisdom."4'' On the pericarp of this lotus are placed the four s'aktis—MalinI, Para, Apara, and Parapara—who are identified, respec tively, with the four alchemical energies (s'aktis): the energy of gold, of sul fur (bald [for vali?\), of diamond, and of magnetite/" In the midst of this group of four and at the center of the mandala is Rasabhairava. Seated upon the shoulders of a preta, he engages in sexual intercourse with the goddess RasankusI, who is seated on his lap.51 Both of these deities are described in detail. Rasabhairava is crystalline, eighteen-armed, five-faced, and threeeyed, with flaming hair, tongues, eyes, etc., and a crescent moon in his piled-up ascetic's chignon.5- He wears a tiger skin and has a serpent for his sacred thread. As for RasankusI, her complexion is the color of molten gold, and she is clad in yellow-colored clothing. She has one face, three eyes, and four arms, which bear the elephant goad (ankus'a), rosary, and noose and show the gesture of protection. She is to be worshipped with the five Vidya seed mantras (bijas)P This diagram, with its "superenthroned" divinities, is our key to the theological and sectarian stance of the RA's author.54 In such a system, that which is closer to the center of the mandala is closest to the ultimate reality of the divinity at the heart of the mandala, from whom all radiates out wards, while that which is further from the center is lower, in terms of the order of the divine revelation it represents. Working from the outside in, the eight divinities of classical Hinduism are far removed from the center of this tantric system and therefore from the immediate concerns of the alchemist. On and around the two concentric rings of lotus petals, the ten female attendants (dfitis) are a probable evocation of the Vidya Pltha's old
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and terrible cremation ground-based cult of the yoginis that was reformed by Matsyendra's YoginI Kaula cult.'5 The basic configuration of the inner lotus is that of the old Saiva Siddhanta system, surmounted by that of the Trika goddesses; these are, in turn, superseded by the supreme divinities of the alchemical system, who are iconographic ectypes of Svacchandabhairava and Bala Tripurasundarl, respectively. So it is that the eight Rudras located on the inner lotus are identified with the eight Vidyesvaras ("Lords of Wisdom") who ring Sadasiva in the worship mandala of the Saiddhantika pfija and who stand as mediating cate gories, in the dualist Saiva Siddhanta, between the "pure" and "impure" worlds, and as beings through whom the lower order of beings may attain to higher evolutionary stages.56 As for Sadasiva himself, he has become demoted, as he is in the iconography of Svacchandabhairava, to the func tion of a mere vehicle: he is the preta upon whose shoulders Rasabhairava is installed.57 In a later description, in which the RA (2.110-16) elaborates on the mystic body of Rasabhairava himself, we find another adaptation of SvT traditions. Mere, the RA identifies various members of Rasa Bhairava's body (knees, loins, heart, mouth) with the five faces of Sadasiva, of which the last, Isana, is located between the deity's eyebrows. Upon his forehead is a half moon; above this is a dot or drop (bindu), surmounted by the nada. 1 Iigher still, located at the fontanelle, is the goddess Sakti. Above her is the goddess Unmana ("Beyond Mind"), above whom is the triadic void or ether (trisunya). This configuration is identical to those found in SvT and Netra Tantra descriptions of the yogic meditative utterance {uccara) of the syllable Om.58 In yet another description of its principal deity—in this case, his thirty-two-syllabled aghora mantra—the RA (2.68) further identi fies Rasa Bhairava with Svacchanda Bhairava and his cult.5" As for Rasa bhairava's consort, RasahkusI, she is patterned not after Svacchandabhaira va's sakti Aghoresvari, but rather after Bala Tripurasundarl of the Srlvidya Kaula.60 One might choose to see in these iconographic data a reflection of sectarian developments occurring within the Saiva fold, in tenth- to eleventh-century Kashmir, where the cult of Svacchandabhairava was the dominant Saiva cult, as it continues to be today. During the same period, the dominant Saiva doctrine in Kashmir was the Saiva Siddhanta, whose particular dualistic interpretation of the SvT was countered by later Trika nondualism, in the form of a (later authoritative) commentary on the text by Abhinavagupta's pupil Ksemaraja (fl. ca. A.D. 1000-50). The new nondu alism also entered the Srividya Kaula cult of the goddess Tripurasundarl, which became popular in Kashmir during the eleventh century. By the
twelfth century, this cult had spread south to the Tamil country, where it continues to thrive.61 Our author, who probably lived midway between Kashmir and Tamil Nadu (i.e., in the region of Maharashtra) in the elev enth century, was therefore adapting the prevailing Saiva cults and doc trines of his day into an alchemical "superenthronement" of the images of Rasabhairava and his consort RasahkusI over those of the supreme deities of other tantric sects and cults.
t
3- Mantra and Initiation in Chapters Two and Three of the Rasarnava
Following its description of the rasamandala, the RA turns to a detailed discussion of mantra, of those "tools for thought" by which the tantric practitioner, like the Vedic ritualist before him, empowers himself to ma nipulate the divinities whose acoustic being is nothing other than the ag gregate of the phonemes of the Sanskrit alphabet. In a universe that is vi bratory in nature, it is through these primal vibrations that one may most efficiently return to the absolute source of all vibration. Mantras are thus indispensable for the alchemist who, like every other tantric practitioner, has for his ultimate goal the conscious realization of a transcendent self I (i.e., identification of oneself with the Self of godhead). At the culmination of its description of its alchemical mandala, the RA identifies the mantra of Rasesvara, of (Siva) the "Lord of Mercury" as the thirty-two-syllabled aghora mantra of Svacchanda Bhairava "with at tributes."6- The mantra of the goddess RasahkusI, the rasdnkus'a mantra is given in encoded form.6' The RA also instructs the alchemist to make use of a number of other garden-variety tantric mantras: these include the pranava {Om),M the so'ham hamsa,65 the aghora, the mrtyunjaya,66 the seventeen-syllable kali mantra,67 the kalapasa,6* mahdpds'upatdstra,69 etc. These are to be variously used before, during, and after every alchemical operation to ensure success. Other mantras, perhaps peculiar to this work, are the mala ("garland") and mula ("root") mantras which, like the Rasesvara mantra, combine seed mantras with evocations of Bhairava-Siva.7u These latter mantras are em ployed in the practice of mantra-nyasa, the imposition of mantras—each of which is identified with one or another tantric deity—upon the prac titioner's own body, by which process that body is divinized.71 This divinization of the body is crucial to two components of tantric practice. These
lH,>
iKl
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are initiation (diksa), by which a teacher renders a disciple capable of entering upon the tantric path; and worship, because all tantric worship assumes an identification of self with the divine, in order that one may worship one's self as the divinity. In both cases, this imposition of mantras effects the transformation of the body, purging it of its gross elements and filling the void left by their implosion with divine essences, in the form of phonemes.72 In the latter of these practices, this procedure is doubled by the simultaneous preparation of a concrete worship site, in this case the alchemical laboratory. This practice, called bhutasuddhi, "purification of the elements," is a commonplace of tantric propitiation.7' We now turn to this practice, as it is delineated in the rather obscure language of chapter three of the RA. Here, Bhairava begins his exposition by saying that he will now describe "another acoustic image" (punaranyam mantramurtim) of the goddess Rasarikusl.74 He begins his discussion by speaking of the fifth element, space or ether which is called the fifth "house." This he distinguishes from the four other houses, which are "placed in front" (pradhana); that is, they are arranged like the arms of a cross, with the empty fifth house standing as a central "courtyard." Because the element ether is the substrate of sound, this fifth house is also the "house of the hamsa [mantra]" in which "the siddhis,fivemakaras, etc. stand." It is within this space that the practitioner will install the goddess Rasarikusi, in the form of mantras.75
mamnaya. Kubjika is, of course, the cult Goddess of the Western Transmission. So too are the six yoginls: chapter 15 of the AM and chapter 24 of the SSS are entitled "Sadyoginyah,"80 and there is in this tradition a fixation on the number six that one finds nowhere else in the Hindu corpus. As for the four Siddhas, these are to be identified either with the gurucatuska, the "Four Gurus" (Mitranatha, Oddlsanatha, Sausthanatha, and Caryanatha) of Western Transmission tradition81 or with the four yuganathas, the Lords of the Ages (Khagendranatha, Kurmanatha, Mesanatha, and Macchandanatha) of the Siddha Cakra of earlier Kaula tradition.82 The eighteen Purusas mentioned in the RA evoke the eighteen Nathas of the Kubjikanityahnikatilaka and Samvartarthaprakas'a, figures whom the SSS specifies are purusas, i.e., human males, as opposed to the divine (three or) four Siddhas, of whom they are the sons and disciples. These eighteen are said to be "distinguished in couples"; that is, they are a redoubling of the Nine Naths who were intermediaries between the divine and the human in the Western Transmission.83
With this, the kalapas'a ("noose of Time") mantra of the "house of the hamsa" is given: arm s'iva hrim krom hamsa. The practitioner is then instructed to repeat this mantra—called the "mercurial goad" (rasanknsa)—one hundred thousand times as the "doorkeeper" (pratihara) at the beginning of the worship. This recitation of "doorkeeper" mantras at the opening of a worship is standard in Sakta-Saiva tantrism.76 Next, "using that same [kalapas'a] mantra, he should take up the dung of a young calf, and using that alone, O Goddess, he should take up the ashes of a funeral pyre,"77 to ritually prepare the "most excellent worship site in which Lord Mercury (Rasendra) dwells" and empower the alchemical apparatus he will use in his experimentation.7*1 He then sweeps the site with a brush he has empowered by installing and worshipping Kubjika—the goddess of the Western Transmission—in it (with the thirty-two-syllabled kubjika mantra) together with her full sequence of subordinates. These subordinates, which are so many seed mantras, are termed the four Siddhas, the eighteen Purusas, the five elements, and the six Yoginls.79 Here, we appear to be in the presence of a number of elements proper to the pasci-
Following his installation of Kubjika, the alchemist of the RA "besmears" the site with the Candaghanta ("The Goddess of Furious Bells," a tantric name of Durga), the mantra of the Goddess in the eastern house; takes up cow dung in order to smear the site with the CandabhairavT ("The Furious Goddess of Terror"), the mantra of the Goddess in the southern house; and sprinkles water over it with the CandakapalinI ("The Furious Goddess of the Skull),"84 the mantra of the Goddess in the northern house. Thereafter, he installs the seventeen-syllabled Kali mantra in the stone mortar, the thirty-two-syllabled Aghora mantra in the pestle, etc.85 While it is difficult to say whether the author of the RA was attempting, in this passage, to systematize the tantric amnayas or pithas in his placement of the goddesses of the four houses around the central hamsa house, we can maintain without hesitation that his was a syncretistic endeavor. Chapter three contains mantras from Mantra Pltha (Aghora), Pascimamnaya (Kubjika), Uttaramnaya (seventeen-syllabled Kali), and Srlvidya (Tripurabhairavl) worship traditions.86 Now that the alchemist's body and laboratory have been ritually purified, the narrator Bhairava turns to the alchemical apparatus, consecrating each with a particular mantra, until all that the alchemist will employ in his ritual manipulations of elements has been purified and transformed.87 From this point on, all of these mundane instruments, chemicals, herbal preparations have been transformed into so many tools (yantras) with which the alchemist may master the one divine energy that surges through
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both the universe and his own body. He is now prepared to embark upon the alchemical life-cycle rites (samskaras) that will ultimately render him a second Siva. It would appear from the above discussions that the matter of initiation {diksa) into alchemical practice is quite entirely omitted from the opening chapters of the RA. Yet we find that the second chapter of the work is en titled "rules for initiation" {diksd-vidhana) and that verses 36 to 83 of this chapter give a lacunary account of dtksa.m Many if not most of the standard elements of diksa are present: a description of a suitable site for initiation, i.e., upon which to build an alchemical laboratory (2.37-43); a description of said initiation hall/laboratory (2.44-473); information on the auspicious time for initiation (2.37^483); the preparatory nityapuja by the teacher including the visualization and worship of the supreme deities in the midst of the elaborate alchemicsl mandala discussed above (2.48^74); "terrible offerings" {aghorabali) to demonic beings who would otherwise obstruct the ritual (2.75-76); worship of the "elephant goad" or rasankusi (2.77a); oblatory offerings (2.77^783); establishment of the consecration vase (2.2 8b-79); annointment {abhiseka) of the initiate with water impregnated with mantras and poured from that vase (2.80-81); teaching the mantra to the initiate (2.82a); and the celebratory all-night cakrapuja for Kumaris, Yoginls, and Sadhskss (following Kaula, but not orthodox Siddhanta tradi tions; 82b-83). What is missing in this account is the diksa, or initiation proper (as opposed to abhiseka, annointment, by which one is empowered to give initiation to others), that intervenes, between the nityapuja and the abhiseka ritual, in standard tantric procedure. Nowhere in this portion of the chapter do we find explicit references either to diksa in fire in which the initiate's karmas are destroyed with oblations into a consecrated fire or to the internal, yogic "initiation by penetration" {vedhajnayi diksa) of the Kaulas.89 What reasons might we adduce for the relative paucity of material in the RA on the transformstive heart of diksa} It may be thst the concrete details of initiation were too secret to be committed to writing and were passed on via oral tradition. Alternatively, it may be that the alchemical practices themselves were considered to be the realization and culmination of the process set in motion by diksa. This latter explanstion is supported in 3 quite explicit wsy in 3 number of nonslchemical sources, which identify mercurial transformations with diksa itself. So the tenth- to fourteenthcentury Kularnava Tantra™ a seminal Kaula source, states that "just as iron,
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penetrated by mercury, attains the state of gold, so the soul, penetrated by initiation {diksa), attains the state of Siva." In a sense, the relative paucity of material on diksa in the alchemical sources may be explained by the fact that alchemical transmutstion {vedha) served as the original model for tantric initiation, especially that most pres tigious form called the "initiation of penetration," vedha[-mayi] diksa.9' Similarly, the purificatory mantras of the broader tantric discipline {bhutahiddhi, etc.) are also rendered redundant, inasmuch as purification is a con crete enterprise in alchemy.92 Lastly, the all-importantyantras and mandalas used as supports for tantric meditation are themselves abstractions of alchemical apparatus.93 In the alchemicsl (snd to 3 lesser extent the hsthsyogic) sphere, purificstion, identification with the divine, and initiation are so many techniques for the concrete transformation of the "power sub stances" that are the human and divine—and mineral, in the case of al chemy—sexual fluids. Much of the balance of this study is devoted to de lineating the myriad ways in which the language of such transformations was a common language, shared by the interpenetrating alchemical, hathayogic, Siddha, and tantric syntheses of medieval India.
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SEVEN
Corresponding Hierarchies: The Substance of the Alchemical Body
i. Rasa and Rasayana in Indian Systems of Thought Rasa (from the same Indo-European root as the English word resin) has one of the broadest semantic fields of any term in the Sanskrit language. Originally employed in the Vedas1 to signify the waters and liquids in gen eral—vital fluids, animal juices, and vegetable saps—applications of the term rasa have proliferated over the millennia to embrace such fields as Ayurvedic medicine, bathayoga, alchemy, and Indian aesthetics. More gen erally, rasa was and remains the "fluid essence" of Indian thought. If the universe is a great pulsating flow of essence and manifestation, rasa is the fluid "stuff" of that flow. Already in Vedic speculation, rasa was homologized with water (dp), se men (retas), the vital fluid (ojas), herbal remedies (osadhi, ausadhi), nectar (amrta), and soma as the moon, the Moon god (also named Candra), and the mythic liquor of immortality.2 In its most general sense, rasa was, in the sacrificial system of the Vedas, a term that could be applied to any oblation offered into fire (agrii). The essence of said rasa was thence con veyed, via the wind (vayu), up to heaven where it was enjoyed by the gods.3 This triad, of rasa-agni-vdyu, is one that has been reappropriated and reformulated throughout the sweep of Indian history. With the internalization of the sacrifice, the major conceptual and practical breakthrough of the Aranyakas and Upanisads, rasa became identified with the "body as oblation" whose fluid essences were cooked and transformed over the welltempered fires of ascetic ardor (tapas), fires that were fanned by the winds of the vital breaths (prana).* Once the bodily microcosm was transformed into the seat of the sacrifice (to the detriment of external sacrifice, which had been on the wane ever since the seventh century B.C in India), interest in the internal workings of the body became greatly expanded. Speculation and research took two directions, the one mystical and the other medical. .84
On the one hand, we find in the late classical Upanisads the origins of the mystic subtle physiology of the human body. In these works, we find early vague references to yogic techniques by which to generate trans formative inner heat in tandem with the meditative, gnoseological realiza tion (jiiana) of the identity of individual soul (dtmari) with universal soul (brahman). Together, these practices served to burn away and thereby ne gate the accumulated fruits of prior acts (karvna-phalam), thereby affording liberation (moksa) from the cycle of rebirths (samsdra). In this context, rasa was the term employed by the Maitri Upanisad to designate the high est emanate of the highest gun a, the strand known as sattvd, "essence" or "purity."5 Early on, the internal dynamics of hatba yoga came to be viewed as so many interactions between lunar (candra), solar (siirya), and vital (prana) principles, a transparent variation on the Vedic triad of rasa-agni-vdyu. In later hathayogic sources, as well as in more general tantric works on yogic and psychological integration as the technical means (sddbana) to the real ization of total autonomy, we encounter the important notion of samarasa. Literally, "of even rasa" or "of the same rasa" the term implies, according to the numerous systems in which it is employed, a state of "fluid equilib rium," a condition of stasis in which the emanatory and resorptive impulses of the Absolute are balanced within the human microcosm.6 In the hatha yogic system of the Nath Siddhas, the rasas in question are portrayed as male and female "drops" (bindu), which are lunar and solar, seminal and sanguineous, Siva and Sakti, respectively. Realizing a state of equilibrium between the two members of this pair is tantamount to the formation of a "great drop" (mahabindu), a yogic zygote of sorts, from which the new, lib erated, all-powerful, and immortal self of the jivammikta emerges.7 Coeval with these original Upanisadic syntheses was the scientific disci pline of traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda. It was in this field that an important new application of the term rasa was promulgated at a very early date. Here, the term rasa came to be applied to the product of the first stage of the digestion process: rasa was chyle, food that had been moistened and broken down by saliva prior to swallowing. In a more extended sense, rasa retained its signifaction, in Ayurvedic usage, as bodily fluid.8 This was an echo both of Vedic identifications of rasa with the waters and of emerg ing metaphysical systems that identified each of the five elements with a sensory organ and field of sensory activity. In Samkhya, the element water, rasa, was identified with the sense of taste. This notion gave rise, in Ay urveda, to the system of the six rasas or tastes—sweet, acid, saline, hot
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and pungent, bitter, and astringent—with each of the tastes arising from a mixture of water together with the other four gross elements, in varying proportions.9 Emerging out of this Ayurvedic matrix, India's classic theory of aesthetics, i.e., of taste (rasa)—through which the cultivated spectator reinterpreted the raw emotions (bhdvas) portrayed in drama, dance, and literature into their corresponding cultivated rasas—was developed some centuries later.10 Drawing on the Vedic tradition which maintained that it was water which upheld all plant and animal life, Ayurvedic theory takes rasa to be the support of all of the bodily constituents (dhatus). As we saw in chapter two, digestion is conceived in Ayurveda as the serial "cooking" (pacana) of the bodily constituents on the constituent fires (dhatvagnis),11 with the end product of this process being semen in men and uterine blood in women. These in turn combine in conception to give rise to the human embryo. Rasayana (the "way of rasa"), the seventh branch (ahga) of Indian medi cine, is the most holistic and prestigious of all Ayurvedic systems of heal ing, taking the body to be an integrated whole, the microcosmic reflection of the universal macrocosm. Its prestige also lies in the results it promises: rasayana is rejuvenation therapy which, combining clinical practice with the internal use of elixirs, affords long life, whence the classical statement of the Caraka Samhitd (6.1.7-8): "Long life, heightened memory and intel ligence, freedom from disease, a healthy glow, good complexion, a deep, powerful voice, great bodily and sensory powers, the capacity to see one's pronouncements realized, respectability, beauty—all these does one obtain from rasayana. It is called rasayana because it is a means to replenishing the rasa and other dhatus of the body." 'In the same Ayurvedic context, the rasdyanas, in the plural, are the elixirs the physician employs in rasayana therapy;13 and it was out of this back ground that the term rasayana emerged as a blanket Sanskrit term for al chemy. Here, the "way of rasa" was a mercurial path since rasa, the semen or fluid essence of Siva, was identified with mercury, the transmuting ele ment par excellence. While we do not know at what time this absolutely crucial identification—of the vital sexual fluid (rasa) of the phallic god with quicksilver, the fluid metal—came about, we can be sure of another, prior, "alchemical" use of the term rasayana. This was the compound rasarasdyana, which was employed, in Hindu and Buddhist sources alike, as far back as the second century A.D., to signify the supernatural power (siddbi) of alchemical transmutation and bodily transubstantiation. One finds no description whatsoever of a practical method (sadhana) for the realization
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Corresponding Hierarchies
of this siddbi in these early sources. Here, rasa-rasdyana was but one of eight magical powers (listed together, for example, with padalepa, the smearing of the feet with a cream that produced the power of flight) fantasized by Buddhists and Hindus in the first centuries of the common era.14 It is only later, with the alchemical Tantras of the tenth century and after, that laboratory methods for transmutation first come to be discussed systematically, under the heading of rasayana. It is also in this later period that we find references to alchemical practitioners as Rasa Siddhas and to the alchemical doctrine that Madhava terms "Rasesvara Darsana." What rendered this later form of Indian alchemy tantric was the pivotal notion that alchemical mercury was nothing other than divine semen, and that its principal reagents (sulfur, gandbaka; mica, abhraka) were the uterine blood and sexual emissions of the Goddess.15 Working from these basic identifi cations, the tantric alchemists were able to construct an integrated concep tual framework for their art, a framework that mirrored the general worldview of Hindu tantrism. Once again, bodily fluids, and the rasa-agni polarity of the archaic triad we have already referred to on several occasions (reproduced here as fluid mercury and fiery sulfur) stand as the basic categories of this new synthesis. So it is that Siva states in the RA that "because [mercury] is the rasa [vital fluid] of my body, one is to call it rasa [mercury]." A more elaborate etymol ogy is found in the RRS: "Because of its power to assimilate (rasanat) all other metals, it is known as rasa. Or, indeed, it is considered rasa because it is effective (rasyate) in the destruction of aging, disease, and death.""' The term rasa may also be employed in the plural in Hindu alchemy, in which case the notion of "essential element" becomes operative.17 Here, the sixteen principal mineral reagents are generally divided into eight maharasas and eight uparasas, primary and secondary rasas that are so called because they participate in the transformative powers of mercury, the rasa par excellence.1" It is in this context that the RC can portray mercury as Lord Rasa (rasesvara) who leads the \niahd-\rasas and uparasas to victory in battle against disease and death.19 This same source also provides an Ay urvedic usage of the compound rasa-rasdyana, which it uses to designate a mercurial elixir that is highly effective both therapeutically and alchemically (a usage not far removed from that of rasayana in a number of alchem ical sources). While rasayana has been used as a generic term for alchemy in India since the tenth century, the means and ends of the discipline are more properly identified by two other terms. These are dhatuvada,2" "the doc-
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Corresponding Hierarchies
trine of elements" and dehavdda, "the doctrine of the body." These two branches of tantric alchemy form a unified whole: dhdtuvdda alchemy, which concerns itself with the transmutation of base metals into gold, is the necessary propaedeutic to dehavdda alchemy, the alchemy of elixirs of bodily immortality. Their complementarity is underscored in a classic pas sage from the RA: "As in metal, so in the body. Mercury ought always to be employed in this way. When it penetrates a metal and the body, [mercury) behaves in an identical way. First test mercury on a metal, then use it on the body."21 The RRA explains rasendra, the "lord of rasas" (one of the five names for mercury), in similar fashion: "It is called rasendra because through its proper use, both metals and the body become possessed of rasa."22 In the end, all is but a continuity of the same fluid (rasa): divine semen transmutes base metals into gold and transforms human semen into nectar by which the mortal practitioner is rendered an immortal superman, a second Siva,23 whose bodily secretions, like Siva's own, transmute base metals into gold. For reasons unknown to us—although we may hazard a guess that mer cury poisoning had a part to play—there was, in the north Indian heartland at any rate, a gradual shift of emphasis, from the thirteenth century on wards, away from the goal of bodily immortality and towards a more thera peutic use of mercurials and other "elixir" preparations. Here, rasa sdstra ("mercurial science") came to apply the scientific—and some of the mys tic—discoveries and techniques of tantric alchemy to the Ayurvedic disci pline. So it is that the internal application of mercury and other mineral and metallic rasas would come to constitute a subdivision of Ayurvedic rasayana. It is in this subordinate form, as Ayurvedic pharmacy, that tantric alchemy—which gave up nearly all pretension, by the fourteenth century, to being a path to immortality—has persisted over the centuries and con tinues to thrive down to the present day throughout India.24 Siddha al chemy, with its persistent emphasis on bodily transformation and immor tality through the combined disciplines of yoga and alchemy, has remained more faithful to the original spirit and goals of tantric alchemy than has rasa sdstra.
with the semen of Siva, and of sulfur (gandhakd), red arsenic (manahs'ila) or mica (ahhraka) with the menstrual blood (khapiispa, rajas, sonita, drtava) or sexual emission (vhya) of the Goddess. This identification of bodily fluids or compounds with the metals did not originate with the yogic or alchemi cal traditions. The moon is identified in the Vedas with the draft of immor tality, i.e., soma or amna, as well as with the vital fluids of living beings (rasa):25 this last term comes to be employed to signify mercury in alchemi cal traditions. The divine origins of gold, the subtlest of the metals (dhdtus), is described in the Satapatha Brdhmana, which states that it arose from the seed of Visvarupa, whose body, after he was slain by Indra, was shattered into fragments by Tvastr, the divine smith of the Vedas: "From his seed his form \rfipa\ flowed and became gold."2'' In the same early source we find a reference to gold refined and produced from the body of Prajapati through the heat of his austerities.27 Brahma, a later form of Prajapati, is born from a primal union of water and the seed of Agni, called the Golden Egg (hiraiiyagarbha).2* And of course, the statement "gold is immortality" becomes a leitmotif of the brahmanic sacrifice.29
2. Myths of the Origins of Minerals from Divine Bodily Fluids The most concrete point of intersection between the yogic and alchemical traditions in India lies in the identification of mercury (rasa, pdrada, suta)
In these prealchemical traditions, gold is considered to be the ultimate product of a long period of germination or gestation within the womb of the earth. This notion, also held by the Roman Seneca (ca. A.D. 60) and, much later, by Arabic (the eleventh-century Avicenna) and Chinese think ers,30 is already voiced, in India, in the pre-second century A.D. Rdmdyana.-1 In this source, the six-headed child god Skanda-Karttikeya is born from the seed of Agni (Fire) who ejaculates into every opening of the goddess Earth when he sees the goddess Gaiiga "in her magnificent splendor." Earth generates an embryo, which becomes the metals gold and silver; and from the splendor of these metals the divine child arises. From the various rays emitted by this effulgent child, as well as from various residues pro duced in his childbirth—afterbirths of sorts—are produced the metals copper, iron, tin, and lead. Taken together, these are the classic "six metals" of Indian tradition, first listed in the Yajur Veda.i2 This myth is important for two reasons. First, metals are treated in it as living substances, with distinctions between animal, vegetable, and mineral blurred: "bodies" of whatever composition or configuration may interact with and even be generated from one another. In this case, fire, fluid, and earth give birth to a god, the six metals, and the natural coloring of certain trees and plants. Here, it is the emanatory dynamic of the proto-Vedanta metaphysics of the Upanisads—a system that is very similar to the emana tion and participation of Neoplatonist thought—that facilitates such anal-
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ogies between the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. The universe in all its parts is a single organic entity, with all that exists on the great chain of being the internal flux of a divinely constituted whole, to which all emanated form necessarily returns in the fullness of time. As such, all in the universe is shot through, "like the scent in a flower,"" with the divine essence. Moreover, since all exists on the same continuum of this divine outpouring, all is comparable, even identifiable. The corresponding hier archies of the elements, body fluids, metals, tastes, cakras, etc. are not dis crete and distinct from one another; rather, they are so many expressions of a single unified whole. Thus they are interchangeable, even interpene trating. In such a quite nearly "pantheistic" context, metals are not merely comparable to body fluids, they are body fluids.'4 The second point that arrests our attention in this origin myth of gold is the god who issues from it: this is a very early account of the birth of Skanda-Karttikeya.'5 This is a myth that comes to constitute a perma nent fixture in every Saiva Purana, where Skanda (also known as Karttikeya, Murugan, Subrahmanian, Kumara, etc.) is depicted as arising from the seed Siva emits into the mouth of Agni (fire) and thence into a bed of reeds on the shore of the Ganges, where he is suckled by the six daughters of Daksa, the Krttikas (whence his name Karttikeya and his six heads), in preparation for his victorious battle against the demon Taraka. In a wide array of other Saiva myths, Siva's seed is said to be fluid gold.'6 Once this central metaphor was established—i.e., that gold (and, as we will see shortly, mercury and sulfur) were the quintessential reproductive fluids of the great tantric gods—the floodgates were thrown open, as it were, to similar myths of the origins of the lesser elements. So, we learn that diamond (vajra) arose from drops of amrta that fell from the gods' mouths to earth after they had churned the Ocean of Milk (RA 6.65-66). Tourmaline gems (vaikranta) are the drops of blood the Buffalo Demon shed when he was slain by Durga (RA 6.123-25; RRS 2.56-57). Blue vitriol or copper sulfate (sasyaka) is the poison and nectar vomited by Garuda after his theft of Soma (RA 7.39; RC 10.71-72; RRS 2.119);'7 and copper pyrites (maksika) the blood that flowed from a wound in Krsna's foot (RA 7.3-4)Natural gold (prakrta-svarna) arose from the abstract quality of activity (rajoguna) that set the universe in motion; another form of "natural" gold (svahaja-svarna) is the golden placenta—deposited atop Mount Meru— from which the god Brahma, the golden embryo, was born at the begin ning of our cosmic eon.' 8 The ca. sixteenth-century Rasakamadhenu (Wish-fulfilling Cow of Mer-
Corresponding Hierarchies
cury) identifies the six metals with (the seminal emissions of) six gods: gold arises from Agni, silver from the moon (Candra), copper from the sun (Surya), tin from Indra, lead from the serpent king Vasuki, and iron from Yama, lord of the dead.'9 Other sources, such as the twelfth-century Lohasarvasvam and the late nineteenth-century Rasendra Bhdskara, trace the ori gins of a great number of other elements and metals back to the bodies, blood, semen, sweat, and tears of a still wider array of gods and demons.40 Nath Siddha sources identify the indestructible body of the Siddha with mercury41 and a hierarchy of holy men with the hierarchy of metals.4-'
3. Blood and Semen By far the richest and most elaborate homologies drawn between human and divine body fluids on the one hand and elements from the mineral world on the other are that between mercury and the semen of the phallic god Siva and that between sulfur and the uterine or menstrual blood of his consort, the Goddess. It is in the context of the myth of the divine birth of Skanda, once again, that we find the myth of the origin of mercury, in the RC (15.4-12), RRS (1.23-29), AK(i.8-15), and a number of other alchem ical sources.4' The novel element in these accounts is that it is mercury rather than gold that is produced from that portion of the semen emitted by Siva which did not contribute directly to the generation of Skanda. As in the gold origin myth, Agni has a role to play in the alchemical account of the origin of mercury, as it is he who drops from his mouth the semen that becomes the transmuting element: In a hidden cave of the Himalayas, Siva and the Goddess were engaged in love-play when the gods came to plead that they produce Skanda in order that the demon Taraka, who was threatening the entire universe, might be destroyed.44 The god Agni [Fire], having taken the form of a pigeon, peeked in through the round window of the apartment within which they had closed themselves in order to generate a son. Upon seeing Agni, Siva, filled with shame, shed his seed. That seed, of blinding brilliance, fell into the mouth of Fire. Fire, unable to bear the heat of that seed, spit it into the waters of the goddess Gariga [the Ganges river]. She too, overcome by the inten sity of that semen, pushed it with her waves to her shores, where a child, Skanda, was born.
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In those places where Agni dropped that seed from his mouth45 [on his way to the GangesJ, it burrowed into the ground to form five wells of mercury, ioo yojanas [about 900 miles] in depth. It is there that that semen is found today, in the form of mercury.46 It is by drinking this elixir that the gods themselves enjoy immortality. Jealous of humans who might do the same and so threaten their hegemony, the gods requested that Siva adulterate it with impurities, and so it is that the mercury found on earth comes in a variety of colors. The mercury of the eastern well is white, that of the western well yellow, and that of the southern well, controlled by Nagas, is blue. The well at the center of this pentadic mercurial mandala contains "mixed" mercury, called misraka, which is said to be mayura, variegated like the throat or tail feathers of a peacock. Of the five wells in which this mercury is said to have established itself, however, the RRS and AK single out the northern well, in which mercury is red and pure, as superior to the other four.47 This northern well is implicitly identified with Darada-desa (Dardistan, located to the north of Kashmir),4" a likely overland source of mercury for India in the age of tantric alchemy. The name of this land evokes the prime Sanskrit term for cinnabar,49 which is darada. So too does the color as signed to the mercury of this well, given that cinnabar (a compound in which one atom of mercury is chemically bonded to one atom of sulfur), the most common naturally occurring mercurial ore, is red in color. Sulfur too has its origin myth, which parallels that of mercury inasmuch as it is the sexual essence of the Goddess that gives rise to this primary alchemical reagent, the female counterpart to male mercury.50 This myth is framed in the Puranic account of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, from which the gods gained (through the intervention of Dhanvantari, the divine physician and revealer of Ayurveda) the amrta that rendered them immortal and capable of defeating the antigods, the asuras, in their sempi ternal war for universal supremacy.51 Once, when the Goddess was sporting together with the female Wiz ards (vidyadharis), Siddha-maidens, Goddesses, and celestial nymphs in the Ocean of Milk off the coast of White Island, blood issued from her body. That wonderfully scented blood was captivating. Because it stained her clothes, she left these on the shore, and bathed to purify herself. When she wished to return to the town, her clothes were no
Corresponding Hierarchies
longer lying in that place, the tide having carried them out into the middle of the Ocean of Milk. During the churning of the Ocean of Milk, that blood rose to the surface, together with the nectar (amrta). All the gods and the antigods were pleased with the aroma (gandha) that wafted on her blood. The gods and antigods thereby said, "May this be called gandhaka ("aromatic": sulphur). May it be used in the calcination and fixing of mercury. May those qualities that are found in mercury also be found in this sulphur." Thus [sulphur] is called gandhaka here on earth. This myth appears to have both an alchemical and a geological explana tion. First, the opening verses of the Matrkabheda Tantra (1.9-14) seem to evoke the myth of the origin of sulfur in a description of an alchemical operation that involves the heating of sewn cloth and menstrual blood to gether in a vessel of milk.5- Elsewhere, this account has been interpreted as a mythic description of a submarine volcanic eruption, from which sub marine deposits of sulfur would have formed. Similarly, the Puranic my thology of the submarine mare (badava), and the doomsday fire (badava) that issues from her mouth, may refer to the phenomenon of submarine gas vents or fire jets. As such, badava would be the oceanic equivalent of naturally occurring terrestrial gas vents (jvalamukht), which are considered in India to be geothermic manifestations of the Goddess. The most popu lar pilgrimage site in all of Himachal Pradesh is Jvalamukhi, a blue flame that burns within a natural freshwater spring, identified with the tongue of the Goddess. It has also long been an important center for the Nath Siddhas.5' In the light of these glosses on this myth and the hard fact that India possesses no measurable deposits of mercurial ores, the following state ment, from the Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas, appears to be significant: "al most all the world's mercury is obtained from the red sulphide mineral cinnabar, HgS, but a little of the metal occurs naturally as small globules associated with cinnabar in certain rocks in the neighborhood of old volca nic regions where the minerals were deposited from hot aqueous solutions during volcanic activity. Many hot springs in such regions are still depos iting some cinnabar."54 This statement implies that there may have been and continue to be traces of mercury in regions of geothermal activity in India. This would explain, for example, the purported existence of a "mercurial pool" located
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in the vicinity of a hot sulfur spring in the region of Kedarnath, an ancient Saiva pilgrimage site in the Garhwal Himalayas. In the light of these data, the myth of the origin of sulfur may be read as a reference to those sites at which alchemists garnered the materia prima of their art. Cinnabar, mercuric sulfide—composed of mercurial semen and sulfurous uterine blood—is a mineral hierophany of the sexual union of Siva and the Goddess, a union that, according to Hindu tradition, creates and sustains the universe. Indeed, the Tamil, Malayalam, and Sinhalese term for cinnabar is lingam, a clear evocation of its sexual valence.55 Now, cinna bar is also one of the eight amalgamated elements (astabandha) used in the installation of divine idols, and it is here that the obligatory installation of a mercurial linga at the heart of the alchemical laboratory becomes most meaningful. Here, the rasalihga is formed of either an amalgam of gold5'' and mercury, or of sulfur and mercury,57 i.e., of synthetic cinnabar. Else where, the RA (i 1.4) compares the mortar in which mercury is pounded to the jwzj'-shaped chasing (pitha) in which the image of a Siva-liriga is set, and the mercury in question to the linga itself. In another passage (11.102), the same text notes that mercury that has been calcinated in a particular mixture of gemstones, minerals, and herbs becomes phallomorphic (lingakdra). This appears to be the north Indian cognate to the production, in south Indian alchemy, of "mercurial phalluses," called gulikas (the equiva lent of the Sanskrit gutika, "pill").58 Here as well, the MBhT substitutes human menstrual blood for its di vine mineral equivalent, as if to emphasize the sexual symbolism of this operation: "Place tamarind (cincini, the botanical equivalent of the goddess Kubjika) and mercury together on the support. Mix these together . . . so that the mixture resembles mud . . . Having shaped it into a linga, one should then harden it [in the following way]. One should tie it up inside cloth that [has been soaked] with menstrual blood [and place it] over a fire [fueled by] cow dung. Some heating will be necessary in order that it become hard."59 The red color of compounds of mercury and sulfur inspires all manner of homologization in Hindu traditions. Indeed, the compound cinnabar is naturally red in color; sulfur and mercury both redden when heated, the latter taking on the ruby (manikya) red color of the rising sun when oxi dized at a temperature of 3000 C.6" This redness, identified with that of blood, has long been associated with the life force or vital energy in both India and China. The ancient Chinese used both cinnabar and red minium
Corresponding Hierarchies
(oxide of lead) to color the bones of the dead, as a means of ensuring them an eternal afterlife. Here, the "element metal" cinnabar, identified with living blood, was long employed as an elixir of immortality for the living as well/'1 In India, where gold and other metals are also employed in the cult of the dead/'-' vermilion (sindura: red mercuric oxide or synthetic cinnabar) has long been employed as a substitute for or a complement to blood offer ings.6' Of course, blood is also closely identified with fertility and procre ation, and so it is in India that married women wear vermilion in the part of their hair as a sign of connubial felicity. The term saubhagyam refers both to this happy state and to the lead peroxide or vermilion that is the mark thereof: here, the term hingula (another common term for cinnabar) may also be employed.64 Also in India, red arsenic (manahsila) is identified with the uterine blood of the Goddess: this is especially the case at the "seat" (pitha)65 of the goddess called Kamakhya (Gauhati, Assam), at which site the goddess's yoni (in the widespread Puranic myth of the dismember ment of the goddess Sari) is said to have taken the form of a great block of red arsenic where it fell to earth.66 In the more abstract schemata of yonipfija, the tantric worship of the female sexual organ, the yoni is represented as a downturned triangle, at the heart of which is, once again, Kamarupa, the abode of the goddess Kamakhya, who is identified with the kundalini and with feminine materi ality (prakrti) in the form of menstrual flux (puspariipini). At the pitha of Kamakhya itself, Assamese tantrics identify their "lineage nectar" (kidamrta) with the Goddess's menstrual fluid (or the commingled sexual fluids of Siva and the Goddess); it is at the time of the Goddess's menses, in AugustSeptember, when the water that oozes from this stone becomes reddish in color, that their annual gathering takes place.67 The powers of the Goddess's menstrual blood are directly linked to its redness. Persons suffering from leucodermia (panduroga) come to Kama khya to smear their bodies with the Goddess's menstrual blood, thus "col oring" themselves with the ooze of her red mineral hierophany. The ocher dye (gerua) with which the Nath Siddhas color their traditional garb (kantha) is said to originate from the blood of the goddess Parvatl, who resorted to self-mutilation to dye the robe of Gorakhnath. Cloth dyed in this color is considered by the Nath Siddhas to aid in yogic semen retention (viryastambha sakti).™ This red mineral manifestation of the Goddess at Kama khya is also capable, according to the Kalika Purana, of transmuting base
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CoiTesponding Hierarchies
metals into gold. According to medieval legend, a sealed cave, containing a pot of mercury (rasakumbha) the drink of which confers immortality, is located in its vicinity.69 As we have noted, accounts of such conjoined mineral manifestations of Siva and the Goddess in the form of mercurial "wells" and sulfurous or arsenious phenomena may have their basis in geological fact. Of the five sacred "alchemical" sites of India, three—Hihglaj Devi, Gaurl Kund (near Kedarnath), and Kamakhya—combine a mineral manifestation of the Goddess with a mercurial pool or source. The two other sites, Girnar (Junagadh district, Gujarat) and Srisailam (Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh) appear to lack the feminine complement to masculine mercury. Hihglaj Devi is, in a sense, a geographical and mythological mirror to Kamakhya. Located at the westernmost fringe of the Indian subcontinent, on the edge of Baluchistan, this shrine is said to be that site at which the goddess SatT's fontanelle, her brahmarandhra, fell. Like Kamakhya, Hihglaj features a number of caves and wells, of which one, known for its geothermic activi ties, is called Candrakupa, "Moon Well." Hihglaj is clearly named for cin nabar (hingida-ja); and one of the many local names by which she is known is "Red Goddess." The keepsake which pilgrims take with them from Hihglaj Devi is not, however, a piece of cinnabar, but rather a lump (or lumps, polished and strung together in a rosary) of nummelite, a type of yellow limestone, called thumra. These lumps are variously described as the petrified seed of the Creator or a combination of cereal grains (khichri, a rough rice and lentil dish favored by Siva) and the blood of a demon. As we will later show, rice often doubles for semen in yogic legend, so the combination of semen and blood is indeed present in the thumra of the Hihglaj Devi pilgrimage. Indeed, it is with a large thumra stone that Xath Siddhas at the Gorakhpur monastery ensured easy delivery to women in the former half of this century: the stones were washed in water and the liquid then given to the women to drink.70 Elsewhere, a number of "womb-caves" of the Goddess, which are legion throughout south and east Asia, are considered sacred by Hindus, Bud dhists, and Taoists alike. One such cave, called Ca-ri, in extreme southeast ern Tibet, has long been revered by I Iindus and Buddhists as the abode of Siva Mahesvara and the Goddess (or, in Tibetan Buddhism, of Cakrasamvara and Vajravarahl). This cave, entered through a narrow fissure identi fied as the Goddess's yoni, is said to contain a lake of sindura (red mercuric oxide), identified with the commingled sexual fluids of divinities inhabiting
the "womb-cave" of the Goddess. We will return to the symbolism of this cave in the next chapter.71 In the alchemical laboratory, such homologies come to be practically applied through techniques that involve the commingling of human, divine, and mineral blood and semen. Here, the point of convergence be tween these interpenetrating systems is the person of the alchemist's female laboratory assistant, who is described in the RA and a number of other sources. This assistant may be of four types: kakini (a woman who menstruates in the dark half of the lunar month, i.e., when the moon is on the wane), kikani (who menstruates in the middle of the lunar month), kancikdcini (who menstruates in the bright half of the lunar month), or padmini (who menstruates either on the full moon or the new moon).72 The names for this assistant {kakini means "cowrie maiden"; padmini means "lotus maiden") appear to be direct references to her sexual organ, which is also described in these texts, in ideal terms, as "resembling an asvattha (Ficus religionis) leaf."73 In fact, everything about the alchemist's female assistant is ideal: she is young, beautiful, raven-haired, doe-eyed, perfectly proportioned, fair of speech and light of laughter, gentle when she kisses and embraces, a lover of dairy products, and a devotee of Siva.74 It is, however, her sexual organ as well as the menstrual blood that flows from it that seems to be at the center of interest here, and this for a very concrete reason, which the RRS (6.34) explains. "She who menstruates [lit erally, "she who flowers," puspavati] in the dark half of the lunar month is most excellent for the fixation of mercury [rasabandha] in alchemical prac tice." In what way is the assistant useful to the alchemist's craft? "For twenty-one days, she is to eat sulfur [mixed with clarified butter] . .. Her menstrual blood [then] becomes efficacious in the fixation and calcination of mercury."7' Other sources instruct the alchemist to place said mercury, wrapped in a piece of cloth, deep in his wife's vulva, to the same end; or to macerate sulfur in a woman's menstrual blood in order to increase its potency.76 The BhP, which terms sulfur umayoni-samsarga ("that which issued from the vulva of [the Goddess] Uma"), states that mercury can be bound and made complete (samskna) only by entering into that yoni, i.e., sulfur. Re productive symbolism is explicit here: mercury, of which one name is sfita ("that which is born, generated"), and which transmutes through the agency of bijas ("seeds") of noble metals in combination with sulfur or mica, here enters into the womb of the Goddess (sulfur) to become acti vated.77 Alternatively, the same source states that the alchemist may bind
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or stabilize mercury by placing it in his urethra (pu[?n}randbre) "together with the menstrual blood of Gauri." Here, Gaurl may be taken as a name for the Goddess, in which case it is sulfur that is being manipulated here; or it may be taken adjectivally to stand for any "fair woman," in which case it is human menstrual blood that he is commingling with his own seed (tadbljena), in all probability through the yogic technique of urethral suc tion (vajroli mudra).1* In this latter case, we are once more in the presence of the "power substances" of early tantric practice. A reference in this source (BhP 1.77) to the khecari-cakra ("sky-going circle") of ritualized tan tric sex, as well as to the kundagolafka] as an elixir in other alchemical sources, further documents this connection between ritual and alchemical uses of the products of human and divine sexual intercourse.79 At the end of such processes, which serve to stabilize and fortify mer cury, this divine semen in its mineral form may at last be ingested by the alchemist in the ultimate samskara of s'arira yoga, transubstantiation. Here, the RA stipulates that sexual intercourse is essential to the activation of the mercury the alchemist has ingested (and adds that said mercury turns him into a sexual animal, whence, no doubt, this text's insistence on his female laboratory assistant's many charms).80 This remarkable interplay—between human sexual fluids and their di vine and mineral counterparts—spills over into the genre of courtly lit erature as well, as in the ca. A.D. 1540 Padmavat of Muhammad JayasI,81 who allegorically portrays the star-crossed love of his hero and heroine in alchemical terms. Here King Ratansen, who has taken up the celibate life of a Nath Siddha, is first questioned by the pining Padmavatl's female com panions: Where did you lose the fair plant [biravd lona: PadmavatT] that makes the silver and the gold? Are you unable to blend yellow arsenic [Padmavati] with mercury [Ratansen]? Why have you forsaken sulfur [Padmavatl] for the cold fare [of the celibate yogin]?"82 [Ratansen re plies, as if to PadmavatT herself]: ".. . If I were but able to blend the mercury with the yellow arsenic [i.e., to abandon my vow of celi bacy], I would give up my life just to see the sulfur . . . I who was [transparent, i.e., dispassionate as] mica, having been turned over the fire [of love], am become [red, impassioned as] cinnabar. My brass body can become yellow gold, if you but choose to make it so . . . If the mercury cannot swallow the sulfur, how shall I call my life yellow arsenic?"83
Corresponding Hierarchies
Here, the ingestion of the mineral equivalent of sexual fluids stands as a metaphor for the consummation of love. In the alchemical sources, such emissions, both divine and human, are taken to be elixirs of immortality. So the RA states: "Until such time as one eats Siva's seed, that is, mercury, where is his liberation, where is the maintenance of his body?"84 The RHT elaborates: "A divine body is afforded through the union of the [sexual] emissions of Siva and the Goddess."85 And, in yet another source, "a wom an's flower mixed with semen, eaten for a year" is proposed as an elixir.86 Here, the flower (puspa) in question is menstrual blood (especially that of a virgin, a woman who has yet to be deflowered),87 and we should not fail to note here that sulfur in its purest form is known in this tradition, as it is in the west, as "flowers of sulfur" (puspita gandhaka).** Such analogies carry over into the vegetable kingdom as well, in which the "divine herbs" (divyausadhi) are said to grow in those places in which Siva and the Goddess once made love.89 A case in point is the caridali plant, undoubtedly named for those outcaste women whose menstrual blood has perennially been prized by tantrics for its transformative powers. The root of the candali exudes a red milk (ksira) that is used, like sulfur and menstrual blood, for the fixing of mercury.90 Elsewhere, Alberuni's celebrated account of Vyadi's discovery of the alchemical elixir portrays this alchemist as searching in vain for an essential ingredient called raktamala, which he as sumes to be red myrobalan, a plant with red, bloodlikc sap. It is only when he bumps his head and bleeds into his alchemical cauldron that his elixir "takes." The same source relates an account of a Siddha who employs the red milk of the plant called thohar to transmute the body of a shepherd and his dog into gold."1 A moment ago, I mentioned the practice known as vajroli mudra, through which the male practitioner enabled himself to tap directly into the fluid "power substance" naturally occurring in his tantric consort, the yogint. In technical terms, vajroli mudra is urethral suction or, more prosai cally, the "fountain pen technique," by which the male practitioner, having ejaculated into his female partner, withdraws his own semen, now catalyzed through its interaction with her sexual essence or uterine blood, back into his own body. In so doing, he also draws back into himself, along with his own refined seed, a certain quantity of that female essence which may in turn serve to catalyze the yogic processes (the raising of the kundalini, etc.) by which his semen becomes transmuted into nectar. A number of sources note that the woman may do the same as the man, i.e., retain his seed within herself to thereby catalyze her own yogic trans-
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Chapter Seven formations."-' Such techniques on the part of the woman, which are de scribed only in the hathayogic sources, appear to be redundant when viewed from the erotico-mystical perspective of a number of Kaula tradi tions. It is a basic assumption among these traditions that the fluid lineage or clan nectar, the subtle fluid essence of liberating consciousness, is natu rally present in women, and it is precisely for this reason that the male tantric practitioner engages in sexual intercourse with her. This was the basic doctrine of Matsyendranath's venerable Yoginl Kaula: women, be cause they are embodiments of the Goddess and because it is through their "wombs" that the lineage is perpetuated, have something that men do not; it is therefore necessary for males to tap into the female in order that that boundless source of energy be activated within them. This fluid power sub stance (dravya) or lineage nectar (kulamrtd), also simply known by the term "true being" {sadbhava)—the purest substance found in the human body— is unique to women in their multiple roles as sexual consorts, practitioners of yoga, and biological mothers.93 All three roles are present in the fluid exchange involved in the practice of vajroli mudra. When the sadbhava of a tantric consort is conjoined with the semen of her male partner, a "great fluid" {maharasa) is produced, out of which a perfect yogic child (yoginibhu) is born. Because women are natu rally endowed with a greater abundance of vital breath (prana) than men, the raising of the kundalini is easier, even natural, for them; thus, when her partner emits his seed into her womb, it commingles with her vital breath and, transformed through her yogic energy, becomes pure maharasa. In erotico-mystical practice, it is originally in the female partner that the pure substance [the maharasay resides. It is this that is transmitted to the male part ner and is returned to the female in an endlessly renewed exchange effected through the "two mouths"—i.e., the sexual organs of the partners: "This knowledge beyond duality . . . is rightly said to be transmitted from mouth to mouth . . . it goes from the chief mouth [that of the yoginl] to [the ad ept's] own mouth and vice versa. Bestower of immortality and youth, it is named kula, supreme.""4 This practice becomes internalized in certain hathayogic sources, in which one internally drinks the "brilliant whitered" nectar."5 The common end result of both the yogic and the erotico-mystical techniques is identical to that obtained through the ingestion of the al chemical cognates to these male and female power substances: white hair and wrinkles disappear, and one becomes rejuvenated.'"' Indeed, mercury
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is made to double for male seed in certain preparatory techniques for vajroli mudra, as described by a contemporary practitioner, the Aghori Vimalananda: To learn Vajroli you must first thoroughly clean out your body . . . The urinary passage is cleansed by sucking water through the penis into the bladder and through the ureters into the kidneys and then releasing i t . . . After you have been able to suck up water through the penis and hold a bladder full of water for three hours, you proceed to use milk, to cool the genital organs. Then . . . clarified butter to lu bricate. Honey next; it is very sticky and hard to make flow upward. Finally you do it with mercury, which is extremely heavy . . . When you can hold a bladder full of mercury for three hours without spill ing a single drop, you have reached the level of the first qualification [for Vajroli]. A woman prepares for Vajroli in exactly the same way."7 Let us consider for a moment the etymology of this rather obscure term vajroli mudra. While we can be certain that mudra means "seal" and that vajra means "penis," the -oil suffix (which also appears in the names of the related practices of amaroli and sahajolimudras) is more problematic. In at least one other context, -oil appears to have the sense of "sphere" or "ball": one manuscript of the SSP (1.73) calls the developing embryo garbh-olt."* By extension, the -oil suffix may refer to the spherical form of the womb of the consort, which would give a reading of "the seal of the penis in the womb." In the concomitant hathayogic techniques associated with urethral suc tion, the upward rise of the combined sexual fluids culled by the male prac titioner through vajroli mudra does not culminate in his lower abdomen. Urethral suction is but the beginning of a process, which in fact raises these combined sexual essences, via the medial channel of the susumna nadi, all the way up to the cranial vault. In this light, the fluid essence of the subtle body travels along a single channel, which runs from the tip of the penis to the top of the head. We are aided in our considerations of this technique by descriptions from two Buddhist sources, the fifth-century A.D. Mahdydnasutrdlamkdra Sutra'"1 and a Tibetan Buddhist alchemical source,"10 which describe what we have been calling vajroli mudra as maithunasya pardvrtti, "retroverting [the product] of intercourse," and bcud len, the "extraction of the essence," respectively. Here, a drop of fluid containing the combined male and female essences is carried upward along the susumna to the cranial
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Corresponding Hierarchies Chapter Seven 4. A Cosmopolitan Alchemical Theme vault. In these two Buddhist contexts, the practitioner's realization is of a gnoseological order: concomitant to the raising of this drop, he comes to realize for himself the nondifference of samsara and nirvana, of suffering existence and the extinction of suffering, and thereby experiences the great bliss (mahasukha).m These Buddhist examples find their direct homologue in the Hindu tantrie notion of samarasa or samarasya, in which the process initiated by vajrollmudra is brought to culmination in the yogin's cranial vault.102 While the term becomes exalted to the point of being identified with samddhi and other enstatic, beatific states, the concrete and original sense of the term appears to be that employed by the Nath Siddhas, for whom samarasa is the commingling of two drops (bindus). One of these, solar and red 10 ' is identified with Sakti, while the other, lunar and white, is identified with Siva; combined into a great drop (jnahabindu) of "white-red nectar," they form a yogic zygote of sorts.104 A south Indian alchemical source, the Kongana 3000, identifies the male drop (which it calls bindu) with Siva and mercury, and the female drop (which it calls nada) with Sakti and sulfur, which, when combined, produce bodily immortality in a process called kalpasadhanai: this is the homologue of the Nath Siddhas' kayakalpa, a general term meaning "bodily regenera tion." 105 It may be that the HYP (4.96) is referring to the same yogic union, in similar alchemical terms, when it states that "the mercurial mind, when calcinated by the nada of sulfur, becomes bound and immobilized." The fruit of this union, of the yogin's commingled male and female es sences, is nothing less than the new, supernatural, immortal self that will now emerge from the "husk" of the gross body, as the result of this yogic process.106 This is the siddha- or vajra-deha, the yogin's perfected or dia mond body, his innate immortal essence which he has now restored to its pristine perfection by burning away the gross and refining the subtle ele ments within himself. This is a body possessed of all the yogic siddhis, including the ability to transmute base metals into gold with one's ex crements, spittle, etc.107 It is this new self that is the subject of the first of the banis of Gorakbnath: "In the empty vault [of the cranium] a child is making sounds. How can one give him a name?"108 Such a child of yoga is to be placed in parallel with the yoginibhu mentioned a moment ago; it also evokes the transformation, even the procreation, of a disciple by his guru through initiation, a process I discuss in the penultimate chapter of this book.
These multifarious identifications and interactions between human and mineral equivalents of divine sexual fluids are brought to their analogical conclusions in a truly astonishing set of instructions for the extraction of mercury from its mercurial well in Darada country:109 Upon seeing a well-adorned maiden who, having bathed after first coming into season, [rides by] mounted upon a horse, mercury, which is found in wells, [becomes] possessed of a desire to seize her, [and] rushes up out [of its well]. Upon seeing it, she gallops away. The mercury pursues her for the distance of one yojana [eight to nine miles]. [When] that [mercury which is] born of Siva then quickly re turns to the well, it is caught in troughs dug in its path. That mercury, because of its heaviness, fell from the mouth of Agni in Darada-desa. That mercury, absorbed into the surface of the earth there, came to remain in that country. By placing that [mercury-rich] ore in a patana-yantra, one kills the mercury. What makes this description of the extraction of mercury from its northern well all the more astonishing is the fact that this is an account that is found in at least two other alchemical traditions. One of these is a seventeenth-century Chinese encyclopedia, the Ho han sans ts'ai t'ou hui, whose section entitled yin-shui ("silver water, quicksilver"), gives the same information, but locates its mercurial well "in the land of Fou-lin"—i.e., Syria—"far to the west."110 This detail is corroborated by the earliest ex tant source that we have for this account: Syriac recensions of the alchem ical works of Pseudo-Zosimus, dated to the fourth to fifth century A.D., describe how mercury is induced to rise up out of its well when a beautiful naked maiden walks past it and then runs quickly away. Young men attack the flowing metal with hatchets and cut it up into bars. 1 " This account is further corroborated by the Syrian toponym Bir es Zeibaq, which means "Well of Quicksilver."112 The implications of these three parallel accounts are staggering. First, they attest to the very cosmopolitan nature of the world's classical alchem ical traditions. We can well imagine that the Silk Road, which was India's pipeline for the raw materials of alchemy, would also have served as a con duit for alchemical knowledge and legend, of the sort alluded to here, be tween the Mediterranean world and east and south Asia. More than this,
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we may glimpse, behind the language of this extraction technique, refer ences to another very cosmopolitan tradition—that of the unicorn. The presence of a virgin, a horse, and the theme of capturing an elusive "game" are all present in the alchemical account. While the western unicorn leg end was very probably born out of the Indian myth of Rsyasrhga,"3 it is only in the west that the hunting of the unicorn—with the aid of a virgin, who tamed it by grasping its horn—and the transmutative properties of its horn are brought to the fore."4 This same theme is treated in Persian alchemical legend as well, in an account of a wondrous creature called the Physician of the Sea."5 The Physician of the Sea is described as having a golden stone set into its fore head which, when removed, transmutes base metals into gold and cures all diseases. The Jabirian corpus of Persian alchemy, generally dated to the ninth to tenth century, describes the capture of one of these fishlike crea tures which, upon being netted and brought aboard a ship off the coast of an island called Sindiyyat,1"' shows itself, after the fashion of a mermaid, to be a beautiful woman. She remains on ship, bears a son by one of the sailors, and later jumps back into the sea, where she becomes a great sea monster who swallows the entire ocean during a great storm. These legends present more problems than can possibly be treated here. Xot the least of these is the direction of transmission of alchemical legend, lore, techniques, and raw materials throughout the first fifteen centuries of the common era. As Joseph Needham has demonstrated, China stands, according the best evidence, as the primal source for the world's transmutational and elixir alchemy. According to Needham's historical reconstruc tion, the first-century A.D. Chinese technique oikim or chin, "aurifaction," would have been carried west to the Mediterranean world in perhaps the third century A.D.. This Chinese term would then have been transliterated, by Pseudo-Zosimus, as chymeia or chemeia, later arabicized into al-chymeia, and introduced into European traditions as alchymia, alchemy."7 If Needham is correct, then Syria, which received its alchemy from China in the third century A.D., would have "exported" its legendary extraction tech nique back to the east, via our thirteenth-century Indian sources, to China in the seventeenth century. It is impossible to say with any certainty that this was in fact the route that this tradition took. It is equally impossible to determine the ways in which the many alchemical exchanges of this long period, effected along the Silk Road, may have occurred. Another detail of the Indian alchemical account is, however, tantalizing in this regard. One of the regions in which
Corresponding Hierarchies
both the western Ptolemy and the Indian Puranas located the Daradas (called Daradrai by Ptolemy) was the Indus River region. In his version of the Indo-Persian account related above, Somadeva calls this country Parada-desa, "Mercury Land," rather than Darada-desa. The Paradas were also located, by ancient and medieval Indian and western sources, in this same general region as the Daradas, i.e., to the northwest or west of India, in either Afghanistan or Baluchistan."8 Now, the Indus River valley is also that region from which there have been unearthed a great wealth of clay seals, many of which are figured with what have to be the world's most ancient images of unicorns (as distinguished from rhinoceri, which are also represented). But unicorns are not all that this region has in common with the ancient and medieval west. The goddess Hiiiglaj, whose shrine stands astride the coastal range dividing the Indus River plains and the highlands of Baluchistan, also appears to be possessed of a venerable pedigree. In fact, she is referred to by her many Muslim devotees as Blbi NanI, the "lady grandmother," a denomination which evokes a wide array of cognate names for other ancient mother goddesses, most particularly the Persian Anahita, the Nanaea of the apocryphal Book of Maccabees (2 Mac 1:13-15), the Chaldean Nana, and others." 9 While there is no well of mercury per se at Hiiiglaj, the principal feature of her pilgrimage is Candrakupa, the "Moon Well," a place of impressive geothermic activity, whose waters do indeed periodically gush up out of its depths and which also is said to belch fire. Pilgrims who come here drop pellets of bread into this pool and interpret their destiny in terms of the eruptions that follow. Similar descriptions—of an Indian "Well of Proof" whose waters contained realgar and were considered to possess magical properties and of a nearby fiery crater that gave off a lead-colored flame but which never overflowed—are found in the third-century A.D. Life of Apollonius of Philostratus.1'" The site also features rock-hewn images of the sun and moon, the description and location of which correspond, most intriguingly, to data found in the fourth-century B.C. Indika of Ctesias, a work that was written during a protracted stay in the Persian Achaemenian court of Artaxes Mnemon II. Sun and moon are, as well, absolutely pivotal images in the hathayogic system of the Nath Siddhas, who are the peren nial pilgrim's guides to and custodians of Hiiiglaj and whose illustrious founders are said to have come from points as far west as Khorasan, in eastern Iran. We may therefore see in the isolated shrine of Hiiiglaj— which remained, at least down into the middle of the present century, only accessible by a twenty-day camel journey—a possible crossroads for the
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exchange of alchemical knowledge and imagery in the ancient and medi eval world.121 It is possible to dig down to a still deeper mythological stratum and see in these accounts variations on the quite widespread Indo-European theme of a well whose fiery liquid contents erupt in pursuit of a woman but are eventually channeled and thereby neutralized. If this is an Indo-European mytheme (the myth is attested in Rome as well as Ireland and India), it would necessarily date from the third millennium B.C:. or earlier.1" In this case, Pseudo-Zosimus's alchemical gloss would have been a much later addition.
5. Pentads in Metallic and Yogic Hierarchies of the Elements The RA (12.83) states that "Sadasiva exists [in the state of] mercury, [which is] composed of the five elements.">2> One scholar has analyzed this state ment in the following highly literal terms: "cinnabar is mined from the earth, on roasting yields mercury, which is a liquid metal, which boils to form a gas."'24 While this explanation makes perfect sense, it is probably not what the author of the RA had in mind when he composed this verse: he was rather referring to the five elements as the warp and weft of a nature that was the self-manifestation of the god Siva, the Absolute. Drawing on a map of reality whose first grid may well have been the Vedic fire altar, the alchemical and other later Hindu traditions, both eso teric and exoteric, assumed the cosmos to be pentadic in its structure but unified in its essence. However many constituent parts the universe had, these were always reducible to familiar sets of five, fives that radiated out ward from a common divine center of gravity like so many spokes on a wheel. Samkhya and Vedanta, the most perennial and pervasive metaphy sical systems of India, emerged in the same Upanisadic period as did the earliest traditions of Ayurveda. Indeed, some scholars argue that Ayurveda was the source—rather than a reflection—of a number of Upanisadic (and Buddhist) doctrines and theories. Also in this period there appeared, in such classical Upanisads as the sixth-century B.C Kdthaka (6.16-17), early rudimentary descriptions of the physiology of the subtle body. These three systems—the Upanisadic, the Ayurvedic, and the yogic— as well as the alchemical synthesis that would follow some centuries later— were all hierarchical systems. More than this, Indian thinkers were quick to tabulate all manner of correspondences between these systems, between
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wholes as well as parts. We may take, by way of example, the hierarchy of the five gross elements in Samkhya and the parallel case of the five metals in alchemy.125 In both systems, that which is higher on the hierarchy ema nates, differentiates, or penetrates (yyapana) into that which is lower, and is likewise capable of resorbing (laya) that which is lower back into itself. That which is higher is subtler than—and therefore capable of encom passing, even imploding—that which is lower back into itself without be ing modified.126 Thus, each of the higher elements telescopes into itself the cumulation of all elements lower than it, together with their characteristicproperties and qualities. In Samkhyan metaphysics, the interfaces of the five lowest differentiates of Spirit (purusa) with materiality (prakrti) are the five gross elements (mahabhutas) that make up the material world as perceived by the five senses: these are, in descending order, ether, air, fire, water, and earth.127 The hathayogic subtle body respects the same hierarchy as it incorporates these five elements into the five lower cakras, which are aligned along the spinal column from the perineum up to the throat. In Ayurveda as well, the body is imagined to be composed of the five elements: the element earth corre sponds to that which is solid in the body, water to bodily fluids, fire to body heat, air to breath, and ether to the bodily orifices.128 Also in Ayurveda, the process of digestion involves the progressive refinement of food from chyle (rasa) to semen (sukra) through seven in tervening stages, which are called dbatus.'2'' It is semen, the end product of digestion, that becomes the raw fuel that the techniques of hatha yoga progressively refine into nectar (amrta). Dhatu is also the term employed in the alchemical tradition for certain of its basic elements: the dbatus are the metals. no Like the elements in Samkhya, the metals may be reckoned as five in number; this figure is often rounded up to six or seven (the same as the number of dbatus in Ayurveda and the cakras in yoga) through the addition of iron and one or another alloy. In the RA, six metals are listed: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron. These metals already appear, in a hierarchized schema, in the Chdndogya Upanisad.1*1 The most explicit connections between these parallel systems are those made between the five mahabhutas of Samkhya and the five cakras of hatha yoga on the one hand and the five metals of alchemy on the other. In this latter case, the absorption of herbs takes place in lead. Lead is absorbed in tin, tin in copper, copper in silver, silver in gold, and gold in mercury.
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Mercury that has been calcinated in sulfur is capable of integrating the body and is capable of "cooking" all the elements. In the same way that earth is absorbed into water, water is absorbed into fire, fire into air, air into ether, ether into the soul {atman), and the soul into the Absolute (brdh?nan). Therefore, just as earth and the other ele ments associated with it, by virtue of being gross (sthula) are absorbed into water, they and all that follow [water, on the hierarchy of ele ments] are absorbed into the most subtle (sfiksma) element, which is Brahman. In the same way, wood and other herbal elements are ab sorbed into the more subtle element lead, such that they and all that follow [lead, on the hierarchy of metals] are absorbed into mercury. '■'The south Indian discipline of Siddha medicine goes one step further and expressly identifies the five elements with five metals. Here, gold is identified with earth, lead with water, copper with fire, iron with air, and zinc with ether.'" In hatha yoga, the raising of the yogin's energy, figured as the female kundalini serpent, through the system of the cakras, also effects a resorption of gross into subtler elements. Thus, when the kundalini rises from the mfdadhara cakra (located at the level of the perineum and identified with earth) to the svadhisthana (located at the level of the sexual organs and iden tified with water), the element earth becomes resorbed into and encom passed by the element water. Likewise, water is resorbed into fire in the third cakra, the manipura (at the level of the navel); fire into air in the anahata cakra (at the level of the heart); and air into ether in the visuddhi cakra (located in the throat).154 As in Samkhya, hatha yoga, and the other hier archical systems, so too in alchemy: that which is higher encompasses, ab sorbs, that which is lower. By way of demonstration, I cite the ca. tenthcentury RHT:W "Woody plants are absorbed into lead, lead into tin, and tin likewise into copper. Copper [is absorbed] into silver, silver into gold, and gold is absorbed into mercury."156 Earlier in this chapter, I identified a set of pentads unique to the alchem ical tradition itself. When mercury first comes into the world, it divides itself into five parts, burrowing down into five deep wells, in each of five color-coded directions: the mercury in the northern well is red, while that in the eastern well is white, southern blue, western yellow, and the center variegated, like a "peacock's tail." The five classic names or varieties (bhedas) of mercury correspond to these five wells: mercury originating from the northern well is rasa; that from the eastern well is parada ("that
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which gives [-da] the far shore [para-] [of immortality]"), that from the southern well is rasendra ("lord of rasas"), that from the western well is sfita ("that which was engendered [by Siva]") and that from the central well is misraka ("mixed; that which mixes with all other rasas").1'7 A number of sources hierarchically order these naturally occurring forms of mercury in the mineral world. This they do by assigning a "caste" (albeit in an idiosyncratic way) to the mercury of each of the four direc tions: white parada, located to the east, is identified with the brahmin caste; blue-black rasendra, to the south, is ksatriya; yellow suta, to the west, is vaisya; and red rasa to the north is sudra. No value is given for the central well, which is said, in this text, to be the source of the mercury found in all the other wells."" The KCM assigns castes to four types of mica (abhraka); the RA does the same for four types of diamond (vajra).[i'' Mercury is again cast in the hierarchical mold of the five gross elements when the alchemical texts discuss the five "[modes of] going away" (gatis) of mercury.'40 The gatis are in fact the five ways in which mercury is lost through physical or chemical reaction.141 The first of these, mala-ga ("dross-gone") is mercury that is lost in solid form; jala-ga ("water-gone") is mercury lost in liquid form; hamsa-ga ("goose-gone") is mercury lost into air, through evaporation; and dhiimra-ga ("smoke-gone") is mercury lost through fire. The final gati of mercury is jiva-ga,'42 "soul-gone" mer cury, which is the loss of mercury's vital essence into ether, space. Whereas the first four gatis of mercury may be remedied through laboratory pro cedures, the fifth and "invisible" loss of mercury can be countered only through the use of the invisible and mystic techniques of mantradhyana, mantric meditation.14' It is this subtlest form of mercury, which dwells "within the pericarp [of the lotus] of the ether (vyoma) of the heart," which the RA instructs the alchemist to recall in order that he may be cleansed of all sins of present and past lives.'44 The same hierarchical principle applies in discussions of the ways in which mercury transmutes (vedha) metals. Here too, the hierarchy of the five elements is fully respected: lepa [-vedha] ([transmutation through] "smearing") corresponds to the solid element earth, ksepa ("casting, [into molten metal]") to the liquid element water, kunta ("dart[ingj" to air, dhumra ("smok[ing]") to fire, and
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both cases, the fourth member is dhiimra, smoke, while the fifth element, corresponding to the element ether, sound, and hearing, involves mystic speech (sabda). It is in this context that the alchemical use of mantras, de tailed in the last chapter, is to be understood. The alchemical tradition knows of a great number of other pentads which, while not arranged hierarchically, nevertheless bear witness, by the simple fact that they are presented as groups of five, to the pervasiveness of Samkhyan metaphysics. These include the five gemstones (ratnas), the five salts (lavanas), the five greater and lesser poisons (visas), the five animal oils (vasas), urines (mutras), biles (pittas), excrements (vitas), as well as the classes (vargas) of the five white, red, and yellow substances.147 Here too, alchemy is a particular case of a general rule: other realms of tantra know of the five faces of Siva, the five makaras,1^ the five amrtas,u'' the five prin cipal pithas,xia the five clans (kidas), the five transmissions (dmnayas),1^ the five primordial Nath Siddhas,1" the five colors, tastes, and dispositions,'" and so on.
6. Bird and Serpent In general, it is the upper and lower poles of a hierarchical system that define the nature of the entire range of interrelationships that obtain be tween that system's constituent elements.154 So it is that we should expect to find the mineral or metallic equivalents of ether and earth, the highest and lowest of the five elements, playing salient roles within the alchem ical system. It is not, however, gold, the highest of the metal dhatus, that doubles for the element ether in tantric alchemy, but rather mica (called abhraka, gagana, vyoma or kba),1^ one of the three major mineral manifes tations of the Goddess. Mica is already identified with the Goddess's sexual emission in the RA (6.1-3) and RRS (2.2), and a short account of its origin is found in the Rasakamadhenu:1™ "One day the hillborn Goddess saw the mind-boggling Hara; the 'semen' (virya) she shed produced brilliant mica." The Rasendra Bhaskara reproduces this account with minor emendations, adding that "because it fell from the firmament (gaganat) it is also called gagana; because it wandered (abhramat) through the clouds (abhra), it is called abhraka."151 These are the two principal Sanskrit terms for mica. Another name for mica, the Goddess's sexual emission, is vyoma. Now, vyoma is also, at least from the time of the Susruta Sa?hhita,iss a term used
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for the element ether, which is identified, in Sarnkhya, as the substrate of the sound tanmdtra as well as of the sense of hearing. Like vyoma, gagana and kha are also terms that signify both mica and ether. Located as it is at the summit of the hierarchy of the five elements, ether is, both temporally and logically, the first of the elements that emanates from the second guna, rajas. As such, it constitutes a turning point in the play of nature (pra£7?/):"'' it is the most subtle differentiate to be found in the visible world and the least subtle differentiate to be found in the invisible world. It is fitting that ether should be identified, through the term vyoma, with the sexual essence of the Goddess. In Sarnkhya, and even more so in a number of tantric classifications of the tattvas—cosmic essences and meta physical categories—the pivot between pure essence and impure creation is the maya tattva, which is identified with the creative power and activity (rajas,'6" the second of the three gunas) of the female principle, the God dess, who is the manifestation, or act of reflection, of Siva, consciousness. The position of ether is therefore an elevated one and is translated, in the subtle physiology of hatha yoga, into the identification of the cranial vault—called the "sphere of the void" (sunya-mandala)—with vyoma[n], gagana, and kha, i.e., ether. Here, however, ether is as much an extremely subtle element located conceptually at the acme of a hierarchy as it is a locus of empty space, a cavity, hollow, or void (which one is to fill with the "stuff" of mystic experi ence)161 located spatially at the summit of the subtle body. It is in both of these senses that ether is associated with hamsa, a term translated as "swan," "goose," or "migratory bird." Since the time of the Vedas, the hamsa has been the bird of predilection for authors wishing to discuss the movements of the vital breath (prana, a term etymologically related to atman, soul or spirit). Indeed, the Rg Veda (4.40.5) itself calls the ether (kha) the "seat" of the hamsa, and a series of later sources, continuing down to the Tantras, identifies inbreathing and outbreathing with the syllables ham and sab. Hamsa is at once the sound that the breath makes when one inhales and exhales and the vibratory resonance (nada) of the Absolute that the practitioner hears internally in the course of the spiritual exercises that lead to samadhi, total yogic integration."'-' In the subtle body, the hamsa is identified with the empty (sunya) medial channel through which the vital energy, breath, and consciousness descend in the individuation of the Ab solute into an individual being.163 In all of these traditions, breathing is tantamount to identifying the individual soul with the absolute: hamso 'ham
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is a palindrome that can be read either as "the goose! the goose!" or "I am That," i.e., "I, atman, am That, brahman" The cosmic goose, honking in the void, thus becomes a metaphor for the resorption—of individual breath, sound, and soul—into the Absolute. The void, the empty space of the heart, susumnd nadi, or cranial vault, is also termed kha—hole, cavity, empty space—whence statements in hathayogic sources concerning the free-floating state of the meditative mind, intellect, or consciousness in the ether: this is khecara, "moving in the ether."164 This principle becomes concretized on an alchemical level as well. Mercury, when bound, is said to become khecari, possessed of the power of flight, a power it transmits to the alchemist who holds a capsule of said mercury in his mouth."'5 If, however, it is heated before it has been properly prepared, or too rapidly, it can be lost to evaporation. Here, it is said that until its wings have been clipped (paksa-cchedaY66 through various stabilizing techniques, unrefined mercury becomes subject to flight, i.e., evaporation (pdtana), and may be "gone like a goose" (hainsaga)}61 Here, mercury behaves like the hamsa of the vital breaths: unless these are teth ered by yogic discipline, the breath will eventually fly up out of the body to be lost forever, and the person will die. The ideal thus becomes one of fettering"'8 that modality of the yogic or alchemical subject which has a tendency to volatilize; by so doing, the wholly integrated subject may enjoy the power of controlled flight, rather than disintegrating, i.e., losing parts of itself that would otherwise fly off. This is the difference between khecara, "moving in the ether," and hamsaga, being "gone like a goose." Here again, the original inspiration appears to be Upanisadic. Referring to the soul, the Kathaka Upanisad (2.21) states: "seated, he travels afar, and recumbent goes everywhere." As we have shown, vyoma, as both mica and ether, is identified with the Goddess's sexual emission. Mercury, when it is identified with the soul (jiva), when it transmutes through speech of which the substrate is ether (s'abda-vedba), and when it becomes possessed of the power of flight (khecara[taf), is itself associated with ether."''' In this way, both mercury and mica, the sexual emissions of Siva and the Goddess, located at the summit of the alchemical hierarchy, are likened to the ethereal goose. Siva's seed is further associated with another sort of bird—as well as with a serpent—in Somadeva's account of the origin of mercury, which varies significantly from the chronologically later RRS account presented earlier in this chapter.170 Like the RRS, the RC states that Siva first cast the
2
'3
Corresponding Hierarchies
semen he had shed into the mouth of Agni (Fire), who had taken the form of a pigeon. Somadeva then goes on to say that those dhatus, in overflowing abundance, were indeed the same as nec tar.171 That which dripped from Siva's hand truly became mercury (parada). From the dross [of those dhatus] born from the immortal and unaging supreme god, there arose the metals (dhatus), eight in number. And that rasa which fell from the mouth of Agni [who had taken the form of a pigeon] was indeed used by the Lord of Serpents, who wished to leave behind old age and death. But that [mercury] which, while being drunk [by the snake] fell to the ground, did—due to its heaviness—fall through the ground into one hundred yojanadeep wells. This interaction—between a bird (Agni, in the form of a pigeon, from whose mouth drops of divine semen/nectar/mercury fall) and a snake (the Lord of Serpents, who drinks up what has fallen in order to gain immor tality)—harks back to mythic themes from both the Vedas17-' and ancient Mesopotamia.17' In these archaic accounts, a bird is identified with the theft of an elixir of eternal life, of which a serpent (who recovers its youth every time it sheds its skin) would once have been the custodian. The counterpart—or more exactly the archenemy—of this bird who flies through the ether of the heavens to perch atop the tree of life, to name but one tree, is the serpent who lives at the foot of the same tree. This theme is, moreover, the starting point for a multitude of Indian variants on the epic myth of the bird-god Garuda's battles with the serpent descendants of Kadru.174 So it is that we find in the alchemical appropriation of certain perennial themes from Hindu mythology, as well as metaphysical catego ries from Samkhya, a return to one of the most ancient "creative opposi tions" known to humanity. Indeed, there is much of the serpent in Hindu imagery of death and eternal life. As early as the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad (4.4.7), the immortal self is said to discard its mortal body "like a snake sheds its slough." The slough that a snake periodically sheds is an important image in alchemy as well. Here, mercury in its unrefined state is said to be covered with seven 'sloughs" or "sheaths" (katicukas). These are coatings of various base met als and other impurities, which float on the surface of mercury (whose spe cific gravity is greater than that of all the metals, save gold), and which are said to be the creations of jealous gods who feared that mercury would
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render human alchemists their equals. Mercury, the semen of absolute godhead, must be purged of these coatings if it is to be used with success in alchemical operations.175 No doubt working from the Upanisadic image evoked above, a number of Saiva schools and sects came to apply the notion of the kanaikas to a much broader range of ideas. In a number of these systems, a group of five kaiiaikas ("sheaths") become an important metaphysical construct em ployed to explain the difference between God in his transcendence and God in his immanence, between essence and existence, the unity of the divine, infinite self and a plurality of finite selves. Such is especially the case in the orthodox Saiva Siddhanta, according to whose Kiranagama creatures are provided with the five kanaikas while in the "bosom of Maya," the material cause of the impure worlds. These impure worlds are said to owe their existence to Ananta (or Anantesa) the first of the eight Vidyesv aras. Now, Ananta is one of the names of the Hindu cosmic serpent, whose relationship to the kanaikas is an obvious and immediate one. This being the case, the intermediate role of the Vidyesvaras appears to double that of the kanaikas themselves: they constitute the gray area between divinity and humanity, essence and manifestation.176 Abhinavagupta, in his discussion of the untraceable boundary between Siva and his creation, may well have had the mercurial kanaikas in mind when he wrote the following passage, so close are the conceptual parallels between the chemistry of mercury and the metaphysics of gnoseology here: The God, whose nature is a free consciousness, whose characteristicis the supreme light, due to his own intrinsic nature and as a result of his enjoyment of the sport of concealing his own nature, becomes the atomic, finite self, of which there are many. He himself, as a result of his own freedom, binds himself here by means of actions whose na ture are composed of imagined differentiations. Such is the power of the God's freedom that, even though he has become the finite self, he once more truly attains his own true form in all its purity. Here, the dividing line between the impure path (ahiddhadhvan: the twenty-five Samkhyan tattvas of the manifest world) and the pure path (suddhadhvan: the five transcendent categories of the Trika Kaula) is com posed of the intervening six kanaikas. Taken together, these are the thirtysix (25 + 6 + 5) categories of Kaula metaphysics.177 A final alchemical parallel, which also brings us back to the important
"5
Corresponding Hierarchies
place of the feminine in the alternation of the divine between selfconcealment and self-discovery, may be elicited here. In describing the mercury produced from Siva's semen, the BhP states that this next com bined with the substance emitted from the Goddess's sexual organ to pro duce four colors and two types of mercury. Mercury, the mineral form of the body of the wholly transcendent Siva, is mediated in the world by the Goddess, whose interposition, in the form of her sexual emission, renders said mercury impure.178 In alchemy, the image of the serpent is not limited to the mercurial kanaikas. It is also widely employed as a signifier for the lower end of a system that is crowned by an ethereal bird: the lowest metal on the alchem ical hierarchy is lead, most commonly called naga, "serpent" or sisafkaj, an allomorph of the name of the cosmic serpent Sesa; or, more rarely, ahiraja, "serpent king."17" The Rasakamadbenn (2.1.4) a n c ' Rasendra Bhdskara (4.108) state that lead arose from the semen of Vasuki, the king of a mythic race of serpents known for the great wealth it possessed in its subterranean treasure hoards. This bird-serpent opposition is made most explicit in the ca. sixteenth century Rasakamadhenu, which identifies gold, at the summit of the hierarchy of metals, with semen shed by Agni, and lead, at the base of the system, with the seed of Vasuki. Let us also recall here the Ramayana myth, related at the beginning of this chapter, in which lead and tin (often used interchangeably) are said to arise from the residue (mala) or afterbirth of the generation of gold.1"" This further recalls the serpent Sesa ("Remains," "Residue")18' who up holds the golden egg of the universe on his many hoods and whose coiled body is composed of the dregs, the calcinated residue of past creations. Of what sort of residue is Sesa composed? According to the Puranas, the cos mic dissolution or reabsorption (pralaya) that occurs at the end of a great age (mahayuga) of some 4,320,000 human years is a two-phase process. The first of these is a universal conflagration, in which Siva, in his destruc tive Kalagnirudra form,182 incinerates all the gross, inert matter located inside the cosmic egg (while preserving the subtle souls of liberated beings in the ether of the highest levels of the cosmic egg, well above the confla gration). Then follows a great rain and flood, the true dis-solution, which extinguishes the fire and immerses the world in a great ocean.18' There remains a calcinated or ashen residue from the fire, however, which sinks to the bottom of the ocean of dissolution, to coalesce into the serpent Sesa, at the bottom of the cosmic egg. At the end of a cosmic eon (kalpa), of one thousand mahayiigas in length,
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the entire cosmic egg—and not merely the lower levels of its interior—is consumed, and it is upon the chaotic waters of the ensuing flood that the mahayogin Visnu Narayana, the "Abode of Mankind," sleeps, in a state of total yogic integration (samadhi) for a kalpic night.184 (Here, Visnu's yogic sleep is the divine model for the samadhi of the human yogin who has with drawn all breath, seed, and consciousness to concentrate these into a single point of pure being-consciousness-bliss. In Visnu's case, all that is subtle and eternal in the universe has been withdrawn into that single point.)18What of the gross matter of the previous kalpa* It too is preserved, once again in the ever-recyclable serpent body of Sesa, who serves, this time, as Visnu's couch, upon which he sleeps away the kalpic night in yogic enstasis. In this way, Sesa, the cosmic serpent who ever renews himself from one cycle to another, remains the same serpent even as he is reconstituted from a new mixture of recycled elements. As such, his body is an endless source of raw material for renewed creations. For this reason, he is also called Ananta, "Endless."186 The serpent at the base of a system is a commonplace of Hindu cosmol ogy and metaphysics. In both sacred and profane constructions in India, a spike is symbolically driven into the head of this serpent, a head that upholds the world, to ensure a solid foundation.'87 Elsewhere, the semilegendary figures who laid down the foundations of Indian medicine (Caraka), yoga (Patafijali), and alchemy (Nagarjuna) are all said to be incarnations of great serpents.188 Similarly, the ashes that compose the body of the serpent Sesa also bear a Vedic pedigree. In the logic of sacrifice, there can be no "first sacrifice"; rather, every "new" sacrifice, ignited with the embers of the sacrifice which preceded it, is a reenactment of that prior sacrifice: this holds as well for the primal sacrifice of the Purusa—recounted in Rg Veda 10.90—in which we find that the "primal" sacrifice out of which the universe was created itself arose out of preexisting sacrificial materials! Ashes of prior sacrifices are the seeds of future sacrifices, and so it is that the erotic ascetic Siva can call the ashes of cosmic dissolution that he smears upon his body his "seed."189 Similarly, when the Vedic sacrificer used a fire drill and block to create a spark with which to ignite a sacrificial fire, it was presumed that the fire produced was latent in the wood of the fire block. In the language of hathayoga, the kundalini serpent is described in the same way: until she is awoken, she is fire that is latent in the fire block; once awoken, she is the spark that bursts into manifestation through the "churning" of yogic practice.1 w
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Corresponding Hierarchies
Just as "serpentine" lead, at the base of the alchemical hierarchy of met als, must, of teleological necessity, fully actualize its potential by ultimately becoming alchemical gold, so too the sleeping kundalini must awaken to remount the hierarchy of emanated being and reunite with the absolute in the "place of the ether," the human cranial vault. The temporal endpoints of these processes—of the ripening of metals and the yogic transformation of the subtle body—are spatially located within the hierarchized systems for which they serve as fundaments. So it is that we find, in the coils of these symbolic serpents, the nexus of a Hindu time-space continuum. With this, we turn to the structure of these parallel and interpenetrating systems.
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
EIGHT
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
i. T h e Two Kundalinls Nagarjuna's name, in its Tibetan inscription {klu sgrubs), evokes terms that signify, in that language, "confused mass," "a mass in the spiral form of a conch shell," "abyss," "abdominal cavity" {klon), and "valley floor" {klun).1 These associations, of a founding alchemical wizard, a serpent, the abdom inal cavity, and the base of an enclosed environment, evoke the perennial hathyogic image of yet another serpent. This is the female kundalini, who is explicitly identified with the serpent at the base of the cosmic egg, Sesa or, alternatively, Ananta, "the endless one."2 In every human body, the female kundalini serpent sleeps coiled in the place of the "fire of time" {kdldgni),1 with her mouth closed over an internal linga in the lower abdomen.4 It is only in the body of a yogin that she is ever awakened, and her awakening corresponds precisely to the initiation of the yogin's progressive withdrawal into total yogic integration {samadhi) or fluid equilibrium {samarasa). On a more concrete level, it is the rise of the kundalinithat brings about the transmutation of raw semen into nectar in the cranial vault, a locus associated with the ethereal goose. In the last chapter, I evoked the identification of the hamsa of the cranial vault with the subtlest channel of the subtle body, the medial susumna nadi. Like the subtlest of minerals, mercury, the susumna can also double as both a bird and a serpent:5 thus this channel is identified, as well, with the kundalini serpent who, when awakened, pierces its opening at the base of the spinal column "like a key in the lock of a door-panel," to rush upwards to the cranial vault.6 The kundalini in the body of the yogin is an incarnation of the feminine in this tradition and thereby incarnates all the perils and joys that women can represent for men. She is divine energy {sakti) and female materiality {prakrti), but she is also a tigress who can drain a man of all his energy and xi8
seed.7 She is twofold, and it is in this perspective that yogic sources speak of this internal female serpent by another name: she is hhogavati, a term that at once bespeaks her enjoyment {bboga, from bhuj, "partake, enjoy"), her coiled form {bboga from bhuj, "coil, curl"), and her female sex {-vati is a feminine ending). As hhogavati, she is the serpentine female principle within the subtle body.8 It is when her name is interpreted in terms oibhoga as pleasure that this female serpent's twofold role is brought to the fore in the tantric context. The kundalini as hhogavati is a female who both takes pleasure and gives pleasure. In tantric metaphysics, it is the kundalini's coiled body itself that is the turning point between emanation and participation, emission and resorption.'' At ground zero of the self-emission of the absolute into phe nomenal being is the kundalini who takes pleasure as she allows the microcosmic life force to drain away into her sleeping mouth. Her sleep is the sleep of dumb matter, and her head or mouth the sole obstruction to the opening of the upward path to her own return, from existence to essence as it were. Her awakening blows open the "door to the absolute" {brahmadvdra) at the base of the medial channel, and her rise along the length of this channel effects the return—on the part of the yogin in whose body she has been awakened—to the wholeness, being-consciousness-bliss, and absolute godhead that is his true nature. Here too, we can glimpse the kundalini's role as the microcosmic homologue of Sesa, the cosmic serpent and endpoint of a prior creation and the starting point of a future creation, who is located as well at the base of a self-enclosed system. We can also see, however, why the kundalini is, unlike Sesa, a female serpent. When she slumbers, "as if stupefied by a poison," in a man's ab domen, the kundalini is identified with human mortality, with death-laden existence, and the bondage of the ignorant,10 which is figured by the in cessant drain of semen that she, as woman, effects in man. In this role, the sleeping kundalini is identified with the fire of time {kdldgni) because the mortal who allows her to drain away his semen is doomed to be consumed by the fire of time and die. Such is the fate of a number of yogins of Nath legend. Most famous among these is Matsyendranath, who, having had his yogic energy and life force drained away by years of debauchery in a King dom of Women, is fated to die within three days if Gorakhnath cannot reawaken him, i.e., awaken his sleeping kundalini. It is when the kundalini is awakened that she becomes capable of giving pleasure—and here too, it is appropriate that she be figured as a female serpent. Her awakening is the beginning of the return or resorption, on a
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microcosmic level, of the phenomenal world back into the absolute from which it was originally emitted. The yogin, in rousing her from her slum ber, finds in the rising kundalini a vehicle by which to raise himself from mundane existence to the god-consciousness that renders him a second Siva. Indeed, the final aim of the yogin, like that of any tantric practitioner, is twofold." On the one hand, he strives toward liberation (moksa, mulct!) from conditioned mortal existence; at the same time, however, he also seeks to realize for himself the enjoyment {bhoga, bhukti) that the absolute, Siva, knows in his very being.12 This pleasure that Siva, the absolute, takes in his manifold creations, his self-realizations, is often cast as his sexual union with his female, manifest aspect, i.e., with the Goddess, who is iden tified with vimarsa (reflective consciousness), maya (creativity), s'akti (en ergy), and the kundalim. It is a pleasure of the same order as that enjoyed by Siva in his union with the Goddess that the yogin comes to know in awakening and raising his kundalim. It is in this light that the kundalini becomes identified, in tantric practice, with both the male practitioner's sexual partner and a goddess to whom he makes sacrificial offerings. As the MBhT explains, the practitioner's bhoga takes the form of the pleasure he enjoys in his imbibing the 7/iakaras that precede sexual intercourse with his partner. The wine that he drinks and the flesh and fish he eats become offerings into the mouth of the kundalini, who rises up to his tongue to consume them. His bhoga, when accompanied by the proper mantras, becomes an inner sacrifice to the Goddess, with whom he thus shares his pleasure. Like his human partner, she becomes his lover, and because sheis the Goddess, his savior as well. The bhoga offered into her mouth be comes nectar, and her rise transforms his very being." Riding the kundalini upwards on a wave of mutual pleasure, against the grain of the entropic processes of aging and death, the yogin comes to experience liberation and bliss. Ultimately, he becomes "a second Siva," in eternal embrace with the Goddess. How does the yogin awaken the slumbering kundalini to reverse the order of nature on a microcosmic level? By assuming a number of postures (asatias), by breath control {pranayama), and by means of a number of in ternal blocks {bandhas) and seals (mudras) that fan the fire of yoga (yogdgni), the fire that consumes the fire of time (whence its synonyms kalagnirudra andyamantaka). So, for example the HYP states that the "Matsyendra asana . . . arouses the kundalini"; that the maha-mudra causes the "kundalini [to] suddenly become straight just as a coiled snake when struck by a rod
Homologous Smictures of the Alchemical Body
straightens itself out like a stick"; and that the mftla bandha "awakens the kundalini, who straightens, entering the medial channel, like a snake enter ing a hole." H The kundalini's awakening marks the beginning of the yogin's own withdrawal into his yogic sleep or trance, into the total integration that is samadhi. In this light, we can see that in the universal scheme of things, the great yogin, be he named Siva or Visnu, ultimately "awakens"— pours himself out into mundane being of which the sleeping kundalini is the end- or turning-point—in order that human yogins might find a way to genuinely "fall asleep," i.e., enter into the yogic sleep of samadhi. On the microcosmic level, this yogic reintegration affords liberation and bliss; on the macrocosmic level, it is nothing other than the pralaya, the universal resorption of all mundane existence into the primal and primordial essence that is the Absolute, God. These two poles of the kundalini's mode of being—sleeping and waking, taking and giving pleasure, allowing the body to be consumed by the fire of time and consuming the fire of time—these mundane and transcendent poles are identified as her "poison" and her "nectar."15 The kundalim is poison when she remains asleep in the lower abdomen; she is nectar pre cisely when she rises up through the medial channel of the subtle body to reunite with Siva, the Absolute, in the yogin's cranial vault."' In the hathayogic sources, this union is in fact accompanied by an outpouring of nectar, which renders the yogin immortal. This connection between poison, nectar, and yogic prowess has its re flection in I lindu mythology, in which the serpent king Vasuki serves as churning rope in the mythic churning of the Ocean of Milk. This churning (which produced sulfur in the alchemical myth related in the last chapter) is best known for its production of the nectar (amrta) of divine immortality. Another byproduct of this process is, however, the production of the most virulent of poisons in the universe (kdlakuta, halahala), which arose from the Vasuki's venom.'7 This poison, churned out of the ocean, would have consumed the entire universe had Siva, whose yogic austerities rendered him powerful enough to do so, not swallowed it. It is the trace of this feat that accounts for the dark blue mark found on Siva's throat in Hindu iconography, and his epithet of "Blue-Throat," Nilakantha.1" Lastly, mer cury, Siva's semen, is a poison for the uninitiated who would presume to partake of it without the proper preparations; for the initiated alchemist, however, it is the nectar of immortality. This coincidence of opposites is divinized in the Tibetan Buddhist homologue of Yamantaka—that is, of Siva as "the Death of Death." This is the Tibetan divinity named "Quick-
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silver" (i.e., mercury) who, although he is a "black poison-faced divinity," is also the "black master of life."19 The twofold kundalini, who incarnates the two prevailing Hindu atti tudes toward the manifest world, a world which it always views as femi nine—i.e., the Vedantic view of the world as imprisoning maya and the tantric view of the Goddess as a limidess source of energy, sakti—is but one of a wide variety of redoubled images proper to the yogic and alchemical body. This dual role of feminine energy—of the Goddess em bodied in the world, in a human woman, or in the internal kundalini— is clearly expressed in a verse from the Spanda Karika of Abhinavagupta's ninth-century forerunner, the philosopher Vasugupta: "It is Siva's sakti, that is, his power to act, who, dwelling within limited creatures, causes bondage; When she is known as herself the path, she is the one who makes perfection (siddht) possible."20 In the balance of this chapter, I ex amine a number of such phenomena in these interpenetrating symbol systems, in images that range from human mouths to wells to rivers to forests, cities, and even entire kingdoms! Throughout, it will be shown that each image at once points to the imminence of death, the great equal izer, and to its opposite—immortality, the cheating of death (kdlavancand)—on the part of the Siddha who knows how to reverse, on the mesocosmic level of his subtle body or alchemical laboratory, the beingtowards-death that is the erstwhile fate of all creatures who are bound to this world.
2. Charting the Subtle Body: The Legends of Matsyendranath
a. Fish Belly Like the supreme yogic god Siva, the hathayogin is himself capable— through his raising of the kundalini—of transmuting poisons into nectar. More properly speaking, that which is poison for mere mortals is, for the yogin who has realized, through his practice, a divine "identity in differ ence" view of reality, identical to nectar, amrta.21 Numerous Nath Siddhas are known for their ability to control (and charm) serpents, yet another metaphor for their mastery of the female kundalini, and for their ability to treat poisons as elixirs." Likewise, mercury, which is a poison for the uninitiated, becomes an elixir of immortality for the alchemist who knows its secrets.23 In this section, I interpret a number of yogic metaphors for
--.! Homologous Stnictures of the Alchemical Body
the mastery of the forces that sleep in the lower part of the body, forces that, when awakened, transform the yogin's being completely. A moment ago, I evoked Matsyendranath, the original guru of the Nath Siddhas, who was rescued from death in a Kingdom of Women by his more disciplined pupil Gorakhnath. It is on this mythic ground that Matsyendra the guru becomes Matsyendra the disciple: after Gorakh has rescued Mat syendra from the Kingdom of Women, he must give his teacher a "re fresher course" in hatha yoga. Indeed, it is a leitmotif of Nath legend that Matsyendra, the teacher of Gorakh, is much more susceptible to the lures of the fair sex, to the world of appearances (maya), than is his pupil, who must constandy awaken him to the reality behind appearances. To be sure, the erotic rituals of the YoginI Kaula sect of which Matsyendra was the purported founder lie behind much of this mythic imagery. So it is that the yoginls of Kamarupa, from whom Matsyendra received his tantric rev elation, become the "Plantain Forest" women who ensnare him, in an im portant myth cycle of Gorakh and Matsyendra.24 In a curious way, Matsyendra is doubly connected, by his name, to the lower half of the yogic body, the place of the sleeping kundalini. However, just as the kundalini sleeps at a turning point in the play of divine mani festation and resorption, so too, the symbol system constructed around Matsyendra's name is an ambivalent one. An extensive body of medieval sources connect Matsyendra to his doctrine of the fish belly through a mythic gloss of his name. Matsyendranatha means "He Whose Lord is the Lord of Fishes" (or the pleonastic "Lord Lord of Fishes"), and his connec tion with fish is explained through a myth in which the Goddess, seated on or near the shore of Candradvlpa ("Moon Island"), has asked Siva to teach her the most secret of all esoteric knowledge, things he has never told her before.25 This Siva agrees to do, but he has barely launched into what will turn out to be the essence of the Hindu tantric teachings than does the Goddess fall asleep. Siva's words do not, however, go unheeded. Matsy endra, who has been swallowed by a fish (whence his name in these sources), draws up to the shoreline and overhears everything. It is in this way that the "historical" Matsyendra26 becomes both the link between the divine and human in the transmission of the tantras and the founder of numerous sectarian traditions.27 In a number of these sources, Matsyendra is further identified with, or called the father (or son or brother or nephew or daughter) of, Mlnanatha, a name which also means "Lord of Fishes."28 The earliest mythic account of Matsyendra, that found in the KJnN (16.27-56) itself, tells a somewhat different story. This source, which calls
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him Macchaghna, "Killer of Fishes""'—an indication that he was a fish erman—makes no reference to his overhearing Siva's teachings from the belly of a fish. Rather, it relates that Siva has committed the kulagama to writing, the which his son Karttikeya has thrown, in a rage, into the sea. These teachings are then swallowed by a great fish. The god Bhairava takes the form of Matsyendra the fisherman to recover the teachings out of the fish's belly, at a site called Candradvipa.30 Later, it is stated that this teach ing (s'astra) was brought down at Candradvipa;51 earlier in the text, how ever, it is stated that it was brought down by Siva and the Goddess, at Kamarupa.32 As a killer of fishes and the founding guru of a tantric lineage and tradiion, Matsyendra may be further linked with another tantric founder. This is the ca. ninth-century Buddhist Siddhacarya Lul-pa (or Lo-yi-pa, Luyi-pa, Lu-hi-pada, Lu-yi-shabs). The original Siddhacarya of the Tibetan Grub thobn lists and author of two Bengali ca?yd songs (nos. i and 29), Lulpa's name means "Venerable Red-Fish." In Nepal, Lul-pa appears to be further conflated with a Buddhist divinity. Here, a famous red image of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara has been worshipped in the village of Bunga and the city of Patan since the seventh century. Since the sixteenth century, this same image has been identified with Rato Macchandemath, the "red Matsyendranath"; and, indeed, an old Newari bhajan, still sung in Kathmandu, refers to this deity as "Luipada-nath." H While scholars generally agree that this is a late and spurious identification, there are a number of piscine elements to the names and roles of this Buddhist divinity that de serve further attention. First, "Lui" is a vernacularization of lohita/robita, i.e., "red": Lul-pa's fish is a red fish, which squares with the color of the Patan image.'■ Second, Avalokitesvara has, in at least one case, been repre sented in a piscine mode: at Ratnagiri (Cuttack district, Orissa), the bust of a mutilated Avalokitesvara image was found to be superimposed upon the image of a large fish, "so as to convert the Bodhisattva into Matsya, the first Avatara of Visnu." The Hindu Matsyendranath has himself been portrayed in a manner similar to that of Visnu's fish incarnation, emerging out of the mouth of a fish.36 Of much greater interest to us is the identification we find of Matsy endra or Lul-pa's name with the term ynatsyodara, which simply means "fish belly." Tibetan translations of Lul-pa's name, found in the Tanjur, include na'i-rgyu-?na-za-ba, which means "one who eats the intestines of a fish"; and na-lto-pa, which restored into Sanskrit yields, precisely, matsyodara, "fish belly."37 Abhinavagupta, who praises Macchanda in an opening verse
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
(1.7) of his monumental Tantraloka, cryptically refers to matsyodara in a later passage of the same work: "On the level of the highest kundalinl is the Emissional Power which is beautiful because it contains within itself the vibration, there the yogin should repose devoted to the condition of belly of
thefish."is What this term means is stated in elliptic fashion in the thirteenthcentury Amaraugha Prabodha of Gorakhanath, who further intimates that this doctrine constituted the very first revealed teachings of Siva, which that god gave to an audience consisting of Mlnanath and the Goddess, i.e on the shore of Candradvipa. Here, Gorakhnath states: "Holding the breath [when it is] restrained by force (hathai) is [called] swallowing into the fish-belly (jninodare). He [who is] blessed with detachment is not con scious until he releases it [i.e., his breath]."3" What I wish to argue here is that Matsyendra's doctrine of the fish belly—a revolutionary doctrine in deed, given the perennial importance that has been attached to it in Hindu tantrism over the past one thousand years—is about diaphragmatic reten tion and its effects on the body and consciousness of the yogic practitioner. This meaning is greatly expanded in the unexpected context of a de scription of the holy city of Benares given in a number of Saiva Puranas. As any armchair traveler knows, the city of Benares is situated on a wide bend in the holy Ganges River, at the last point at which the river turns north, as if to return to its Himalayan source. It is also a city that is said in certain sources to resemble a fish in shape.40 Though not because of its piscine outline, the beauty and holiness of Benares are such that Siva, in a distant mythic past, chose to make Benares, or KasI, his home whenever he was not meditating atop Mount Kailash.4' For Hindu pilgrims from time immemorial, it is not the beauty of the site, but rather the liberating effects of bathing in the waters of the Ganges there—the salvific powers of which are enhanced by Siva's presence—that has been the prime reason for undertaking a journey to that fabled city. The Ganges (Gahga) is, however, but one of a triad of holy rivers—and of river goddesses—its two sister rivers being the Yamuna (which joins the Ganges at Prayag, the modern Allahabad), and the Sarasvati. There is a mystery to this last river, the earliest river to be identified with a goddess in the Vedic literature: rising in the highlands of southwestern Rajasthan, it is a river that "disappears" into the plains of Kacch before ever reaching the sea—and it is this hidden nature of the Sarasvati that is brought to the fore in the Puranic descriptions of viatsyodari-yoga, the "fish-belly conjunc tion" of Benares.
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Before we can explain this phenomenon, however, we must first briefly review a commonplace of yogic physiology, according to which the three principal subtle channels (nadis) of the life force are identified with these three major rivers (nadis): the solar pingala is the Yamuna River, the lunar ida is the Ganges, and the medial, "empty" susumna is the "fiery," "hidden" Sarasvati.42 In the practice of breath control, pranayama, it is by pumping up and thereby emptying the two peripheral subtle channels, the ida and the pingala, that the theretofore empty susumna suddenly becomes filled with the subtle breath or life force (prana) to become the yogin's internal upward-tending channel to liberation. This yogic homologue to these three river systems of India is so obvious as to not require explanation here. Benares, the greatest pilgrimage site (tirtha) of India, is said to contain all of the rivers and all of the tirthas of India within its precincts. It is in this context that the geography of the city, as well as seasonal floods there, contributed to the unusual riverine phenomenon known as the "fish-belly conjunction," down to at least the sixteenth century. Prior to its urbaniza tion over the past two centuries, the inner limits of riverine Benares were constituted by a string of inland pools, tanks, and lakes. One of these was named Matsyodari, the "[Lake of the] Fish Belly." In particularly heavy rainy seasons, these reservoirs would flood into one another to form a single channel—also called the Matsyodari—that ran for no less than three miles between the river known as the Varana, the tributary to the Ganges forming the city's northern border, and the stream known as the Asi, which flowed into the Ganges at the southern end of the city.4' According to folk etymology, the classic name of Benares—VaranasI—derives from the fact that that city-state lay between the Varana and Asi rivers. For certain car tographers of the subtle body, the symbolism was clear:44 "The two vessels called the ida and the pingala are the real varana-asi. T h e space between them is called VaranasI. There it is said that [Siva] Visvanath dwells .. . From the right side of the ajna [cakra] and going to the left nostril flows the ida. It is here called Varana, the upward-flowing [Ganges] . . . Rising from the left side of the ajna lotus45 and going to the right nostril, this upward-flowing pingala has been called of yore the Asi." This schematization flows directly into the rainy-season phenomenon I have been describing: when the seasonal Matsyodari opened its periodic channel, the normal flow of Benares's rivers became reversed: the Ganges would actually back up into its tributary, the Varana, and flow therefrom into the seasonal Matsyodari channel; the Matsyodari would in turn drain into the Asi, out of the mouth of which the Ganges would empty back into
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
"itself." The waters of the Ganges that were so channeled therefore ran against the river's normal flow, along the underbelly of the piscine outline of Benares—within which the permanent Matsyodari Lake was located— whence the designations of matsyodari for the periodic stream itself, and matsyodari-yoga, the "fish-belly conjunction," for those periods in which it appeared (and for the site at which the overflow of Matsyodari Lake ran into the waters of the flooding Ganges). This anomaly, of a periodic backflooding of the Ganges, is given a yogic gloss in the ca. tenth-century l.inga Purana, a gloss that will at once explain the great yogin Matsyendranath's piscine associations: Pingala is the name by which the fiery nidi is praised, and it is known to be that dried up stream (the Asi) [which runs by the place] where [the tank named] "the trembling sun"4'' stands. Ida is the name by which the lunar nadi is praised. It is known to be the Varana [River], where the [Visnu] Kesava [temple] is situated. That nadi [which runs] between the two is glorified as the susumna and known as Matsyodari; it is praised as "[a stream] running in both directions" (visuvam).*' There where [two currents] come together at the Fish-Belly Pool, a bath yields liberation . . . It is an extraordinary conjunction when the Ganges runs into the Fish-Belly channel to the west of Kapilesvara. A bath at that juncture yields [the fruits of] a thousand horse sacri fices . . . That place is indeed praised as the fluvial /'ra/w/rf-syllable.48 In a passage from the somewhat later KasI Khanda of the Skanda Purana, the Matsyodari is said to be bahir-antascara, "flowing both inside and outside" (i.e., surrounding Benares, via the Ganges' normal outer channel as well as that of the inner Matsyodari), and taking the path of retraction (samhara-mdrga).*9 With this, we now hold all the necessary elements for a symbolic interpretation of the term "fish-belly conjunction," matsyodariyoga. The belly of the fish, and that "path of retraction" at which a reversal of the normal flow occurs, is, assuredly, the opening of the medial channel, the susumna nadi50 at the base of the subtle body. The two peripheral chan nels (the ida and pingala) are the Varana (Ganges) and Asi (Yamuna) rivers, whose flow is reversed such that the "empty" medial channel, the susumna (the Sarasvati River; and in Benares, the Matsyodari), may be opened and filled with the reversed, upward flow of semen, life force, breath, and mind, which yields liberation and immortality. In this schema, the backwardflowing Ganges itself doubles as the "disappearing" Sarasvati River, which
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"reappears" in a feat of yogic reversal when it becomes the Matsyodarl, the fish-belly channel." Matsyodari-yoga, the "fish-belly conjunction," is, however, more than a mere macrocosmic reproduction of a structure of the subtle body. It also refers to a particular yogic practice, specifically to that practice to which Gorakhnath alludes in the Amaraugha Prabodha passage quoted above. "Holding the breath when it is restrained by force (hathat) . . . in the fish belly (minodare)" is a description of that most fundamental aspect of breath control called kumbhaka, the "potlike" diaphragmatic retention of the breaths." Here, the ida and pingala channels are "pumped like bellows," by means of breath control, until the susumna channel suddenly opens. At this point, the two peripheral channels empty and lie "swooned." What follows is automatic: the vital breath that rushes into the susumna rises upward, against the normal downward flow of all bodily fluids, affords yogic libera tion." In Puranic mythology, it is precisely by bathing during the period of the "fish-belly conjunction" that the god Bhairava was liberated from the skull of Brahma that had clung to his hand for twelve years. Having thus completed his "skull bearer's vow" (kapalika vrata), Bhairava estab lished himself as the guardian deity of Benares, at a temple on the bank of the Kapalamocana ("Liberation from the Skull") tank.54 This god's mythic liberation from his terrible vow is tantamount to the wholly unconditioned state of Sivahood enjoyed by the yogin at the culmination of his practice of "swallowing into the fish belly." Matsyendra's doctrine of the fish belly would therefore have been, if nothing else, a teaching on hatha yoga. This is supported by the fact that Gorakhnath, in the opening verses of his twelfth- to thirteenth-century Goraksa Sataka, invokes Mlnanath as his guru." Now, while it has been maintained that six-cakra yoga was an innovation of the Western Transmis sion, it would appear that Matsyendra's doctrine of the fish belly (kumbhaka as the culmination of breath control), together with a significant number of other references to the subtle body and hathayogic practice found in the KJnN, would make him the founding guru of this discipline, or at least of one of its major canons.56 Abhinavagupta may also be singling Macchanda out for praise on these grounds;57 it is also possible, however, that the image of the fish belly also had a sexual connotation in Kaula eroticomystical practice. Such is certainly the case in the religious belief and practice of the Bauls, a Bengal-based syncretic sect whose ties to the Nath Siddhas are numerous
and well-documented. As June McDaniel has demonstrated, the Bauls portray Isvara or the man of the heart [as] a fish (min-rupa). This fish [which] swims in the "high tide" of [a woman's] menstrual flow . . . is caught by the enjoyer (rasika), the Baul who is full of love. This is the "tide time in the river," the overflowing oirasa [sexual fluids]. He catches the fish and causes it to move in an upward direction. The fish must be caught at the right time, or the waters dry and he is gone .. . The right time is once a month, a Mahayoga. It includes the new moon, the period regarded by the Bauls as the time before the fish emerges; this is the time of lust (kama). When the fish is present, it is the time of the menstrual flow designated as full moon. The third day [of a woman's menses] is the time to catch the fish; he is not present before that, and there is the danger of the black crocodile of desire.5" In this context, we may read matsyodari-yoga as a temporal conjunction in the menstrual cycle of a yogini. Matsyendra the fisherman catches his "fish" of the Kaula revelation at that precise moment and thereby becomes the revealer of the Yogini Kaula. b. Moon Island With this, we exhaust the symbolism of the yogic fish belly; in so doing, however, we bump up against another riddle of tantric parlance. Here, we must consider that in the times of the fish-belly conjunction, the city of Benares, surrounded by the Gaiiga, Varana, Matsyodarl, and Asi rivers, became an island.-'' Here, we are reminded of Moon Island, off the shore of which Matsyendra, in the belly of a fish, overheard Siva's original tantric teachings. This island has never ceased to tantalize scholars who have attempted, without success, to localize the toponym Candra-duipa some where on the India subcontinent60 and to explain its implicit identification, in a number of tantric sources, with Candra-giri ("Moon Hill") or Candraparvata ("Moon Mountain"). Here again, it may be argued, on the basis of data found in the tantric texts themselves, that iVIoon Mountain and Moon Island (for what is an island if not a mountain with its feet in the water?)6' are, like the Fish Belly, locations that appear within the subtle body when a certain body of prac tice is carried to its conclusion. That this is an inner landscape of the subtle
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body is already borne out by the KJnN's statement that, by using the net of yogic energy (s'akti-jdlam), Matsyendra the fisherman pulled his fish (containing the kula teachings) out of the seven oceans (i.e., the seven cakras),61 an impossible act in the "real world." In this case, the mountain or island in question is located either in the cranial vault or the abdominal cavity, but in either case on the left side of the body, i.e., that half of the body through which the lunar idd nddt passes. The KJnN itself, which maintains in its chapter colophons65 that its teach ings were brought down (avatarita) at Moon Island, offers a certain body of evidence to this effect when it describes the oozing of nectar, via the brahmarandhra (the "cleft of brahman," i.e., the fontanelle), as "gladdening the moon" (candrdblddakara) and associates the lunar posture (candrdsana) with the hathayogic practice of khecari [jnudrd], also effected within the cranial vault/'4 In addition, both this source and a number of other hatha yogic works of the Nath Siddhas and the Western Transmission place great emphasis on the "western" or left side of the body as the locus of the most critical transformations occurring within the subtle body.65 The teachings of the KM were brought down, as well, at Moon Island; however, this text places equal or greater emphasis on Moon Mountain or Moon Hill, which, as indicated, likely refers to the same locus within the subtle body. This appears to be the meaning of a statement found in the first chapter of this work, which states that Moon Mountain is located to the west of Meru, i.e., the subtle spinal column, which culminates in the brahmarandhra at the summit of the cranial vault.66 This lunar location is found in other Western Transmission sources, which declare that the textual canon was "brought down"—by a figure var iously called Srinatha, Srlkantha, Adinatha, or Siddhanatha—at a lunar location called Candragiri, Candradvlpa, Candrapurl, or Candrapltha.67 Once again, however, this location appears to be, at least to a certain ex tent, an internal one. This is borne out by a passage from an A.D. 1395 manuscript of the Kubjikdnitydhnikatilaka, which maintains that Srinatha— with the aid of three Siddhas named Sun, Moon, and Fire—founded that tantric kula, "at the beginning of the Kali Yuga," at a site called Candrapurl ("Moon City"), located in the western region of Koiikana.68 In spite of this purportedly geographical reference to Koiikana, the most satisfactory interpretation of this account remains an allegorical one: Moon City is the site, in the left (western) side of the subtle body, in which the hathayogic praxis culminates, through the interaction of the three principle nddis fig ured here as the Siddhas Sun, Moon, and Fire. This is further supported
*3i
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
by a passage from the Cincinlmatasdrasamucchaya, a Western Transmission text which identifies the founding Siddhas Mlnanatha with the moon, Mesapada with the sun, and Kurmanatha with fire.6'' In the later works of Gorakhnath and other synthesizers of the hatha yogic gnosis, the identification of the cranial vault as the place of the microcosmic moon becomes a commonplace. It is moreover in a work attrib uted to Gorakhnath, the Amaraughas'dsana, that the left side of the head, or the cavity of the left nostril, is explicitly identified with the circle of the moon.70 We may imagine that the city of Benares—identified with the djnd cakra of the cranial vault and theoretically situated atop three hilltops on the northern bank of the Ganges River, between the Varana and Asi riv ers—could have been identified with both a mountain and an island, after the fashion of Candragiri and Candradvlpa, by medieval cartographers of the subtle body. When, through the practice of diaphragmatic retention, the central susumnd channel opened to serve as an upward conduit for the yogic life force, seed, and energy, a lunar site in the left side of the cranial vault called Candragiri, "Moon Hill," would have flooded to become Can dradvlpa, "Moon Island," as in the case of Benares during the fish-belly conjunction.7'
c. The Mare's Mouth This is not the sole possible gloss of this phenomenon, however. In addi tion to the microcosmic Moon Island/Moon Mountain located in the left side of the cranial vault, there is another site at which a similar phenome non appears to occur: this is the inner linga covered by the mouth of the sleeping kundalini: located, according to certain sources, in the left side of the abdominal cavity, this is referred to as the pascinia-linga, the "western linga."72 In his fourteenth-century Chos-hbyung (History of Buddhism), the Tibetan historian Bu-ston, citing an Indian source entitled the Ndthdbhyudaya Tantra, gives the following account: "A certain fisherman, having been swallowed by a fish, will die and be reborn as the yogin called Darika. This one will cast wine into the river Ganges and in an hour an island called Badava will appear."7' The fisherman in the belly of a fish once again evokes Matsyendra; moreover, in a Tibetan list of the eighty-four Mahasiddhas, Darika is listed as the disciple of Lul-pa who is, as noted, a pos sible equivalent of Matsyendra.74 Darika may therefore be symbolically identified with Matsyendra himself or with his double, his "son" Mlnanath (especially since the Tibetan source says the fisherman dies and is reborn
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Chapter Eight
as Darika). The mention of an island suddenly appearing out of the Ganges would also be an apparent reference to matsyodari-yoga, during which times Benares became an island. What, then, of the name Badava? The term badava, "that which arises from a mare (badava)" has a partic ular resonance in Hindu mythology or, more properly speaking, Hindu eschatology. Badava is the name of the submarine fire—or, more precisely, of the fiery fluid composed of both fire and soma—which originated from Siva's third eye when he incinerated Kama, the Hindu Eros. When that fire, once released, threatened to engulf the entire universe, it was placed by Siva inside the mouth of a "submarine mare" at the bottom of a south ern sea, whence it continues to belch flame down to the present day One day, when it will have burned away, evaporated, all the water in that ocean, it will incinerate the entire universe, reducing all to ashes.75 Badava is therefore the fire of the cosmic dissolution, in potentia, as well as a fire in the mouth of a female creature. Which brings us back to the sleeping kundalini, who sleeps (like the Goddess in the myths of Moon Island) in the left (western) side of the subtle body. (The KJtlN itself, while it mentions a goddess named Kundall, makes no explicit mention of the kundalini in this role.76 One may, how ever, see, in its imagery of the badava—the fire of universal dissolution or retraction (samhdra) in the mouth of a submarine mare (badava)—a prefiguration of this more common, but later, image of this female serpent power.) Let us recall here that the kundalini, when she sleeps, is identified with the kalagni, the fire of time that cooks all creatures to death, through the aging process. Let us also bear in mind that the fire of yoga (yogagni) that destroys the fire of time, is identified as kdlagninidra, the "Rudra of the Fire of Time," that is, a fire which is greater than, which consumes, the fire of time.77 When she sleeps, the kundalini is associated with the fire of time, a time whose passage is marked by the movements of sun and moon in the subtle body; when she awakens, sun and moon (here the idd and pingald nadis) are immobilized, and the kundalini, doubling as the susumna nadi, is said to "consume time."78 Therefore, while the kundalini's sleep is associated with the fire of time, the loss of the yogic fuel that is semen, and being-towards-death, her po tential for reversing such a process likens her more to the mythic badava fire at the bottom of the southern sea, a fire that, once it has consumed the waters of the ocean, will become the kalagnirudra, the fire that consumes time. Once again, it is Matsyendra's KJfiN that offers a primal and funda mental reading of this yogic process. Here, it is said that the universal
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retraction (samhdra) will occur when the fire of the kdlagninidra, the De stroyer of the Fire of Time—a fire he identifies with the mouth of the submarine mare (badavdmukha)—flares upward. This cryptic utterance, made at the beginning of general discussion of "yogic retraction," precisely concerns the awakening of the fire of yoga in the base of the subtle body, an awakening that leads to total yogic resorption in the cranial vault, the microcosmic equivalent of the pralaya, the cosmic dissolution. The badava is that fire, in potentia, that slumbers in every subtle body: when mastered and channeled upwards, it affords liberation; when allowed to burn nor mally, it is the fire of time that cooks all beings to death.79 It will also be recalled that matsyodari-yoga is at once a description of the yogic practice of diaphragmatic retention (kumbhaka),*0 by which the nadis peripheral to the medial susumna, the channel of the rising kundalini, are emptied. This practice not only suddenly fills the susumna with breath; it also fills this channel with semen, and it is here that Darika's island in the Ganges suddenly comes into view. Earlier, I cited a passage from the KasI Khanda of the Skanda Purdna that described the Matsyodarl as taking the "path of retraction" (samhdra-mdiga)?x i.e., as draining the Ganges into a channel that flowed in a direction opposite to its normal flow. Such is also the case with the subtle body: when the kundalini rises, she also siphons upwards the semen that had previously remained inert and subject to loss in the yogin's abdomen. In this light, we must evoke another yogic com monplace: kalagni, the fire of time, is identified with adhoretas, that is with "downward-tending semen," while kalagnirudra is identified with urddhvaretas, "upward-tending semen."8What happens when the kundalini rises? A "column" of ambrosial se men is raised, via the susumna nddi, to flood the cranial vault. This is the meaning of the island called "Mare's Mouth" that suddenly appears in the Ganges when Darika throws wine into its waters: when matsyodari-yoga takes place and the normal downward current of bodily entropy is reversed, the upward channeling of seed causes the theretofore submerged badava fire to flare up from the base of the subtle body. This reading is supported by a poem of the fifteenth-century mystic poet Kablr, who instructs the yogin to "reverse the [flow of the] Ganges, and dry up the ocean."8' When applied to the sacred geography of Benares, the "path of retraction" taken by the Ganges during a fish-belly conjunction transforms the city into an island. When applied to the sacred geography of the KJnN and KM, the landform of the subtle body that appears through this dynamic is known as Moon Island or Moon Mountain.
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Lastly, there is the matter of the wine Darika throws into the Ganges to trigger this process. Here, we should note that the tantric Buddhist tradi tion of which Darika was an exemplar was a form of tantrism which em phasized the symbolic use of the five makaras, the "antisacraments" of wine, fish, flesh, parched grain, and sexual intercourse. It now suffices to return to the MBhT passage cited above to understand the meaning of Darika's gesture. The sacramental wine that the tantric practitioner im bibes becomes an offering into the mouth of the kundalini who, sharing his enjoyment (bhoga), awakens to rise and thereby transform him into a second Siva.84 The badava, the fire in the mouth of the submarine mare, has a number of other usages in tantric and alchemical geography. A natural gas vent at the important sakta pitha of Kamakhya is called badava kunda, the "pool of the submarine [-mare] fire."85 This evokes another such vent, also identified with a goddess; this is Jvalamukhl, "She of the Flaming Mouth," in Himachal Pradesh. In a generic sense, jvala?nukhi can also have the sense of "(mouth of a) volcano," and it is here that we are brought back to the geol ogy of alchemy, according to which mercury and sulfur naturally occur in areas of volcanic and geothermic activity. In fact, the origin myths of mer cury and sulfur evoke, for certain modern Indian interpreters, volcanic eruptions. In the latter case, the sulfur that arises from the churning of the ocean of milk would be the mythologization of a submarine volcaniceruption.86 If this is in fact the case, then the origin of sulfur—the uterine blood of the Goddess associated with the lower half of the body in which the kundalini sleeps—is to be identified with a flaring up of a female submarine fire, a badava.
d. The "Plantain Forest" in the Midst of "Loves Body" Gas vents and volcanos that are so many "mouths" of fire or flame in these mythic and geographical contexts evoke other types of mouths from tan tric imagery. Apart from the oral orifice in the head, the most celebrated mouth in tantrism is the "lower mouth" (adhovaktra) i.e., the vulva (yoni) of the yogini. And indeed, the ca. twelfth-century SSS (2.14), a foundational text of the Western Transmission, identifies the mfdadhara cakra with the submarine fire (vadavanala), which its commentator locates in the upper part of the yoni.*1 Like the kundalini herself, the vulva is an organ fraught with danger but also the promise of great power and pleasure for the prac-
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
titioner who can master himself in its presence. Whence the most seminal of all of the banis of Gorakhnath, who adds an alchemical nuance to this sexual image: "Penis in the vulva's mouth, mercury in the mouth of fire, he who can retain these [volatile substances of semen and mercury], him I call my guru."88 There is a certain irony to this verse, if we recall that in myth, Gorakh's guru Matsyendra was a teacher who was quite incapable of retaining his seed in proximity to beautiful women, to yoginh. This weakness of Matsyendranatha for the fair sex is the subject of a body of legend set in the land of Kamarupa, which is itself identified, precisely, with the center of the adhovaktra, the lower mouth or vulva of the yogini, but also with the center of a mystic triangle located at the base of the subtle body, in the same region as the kundalini.m Once again, the locus of these myths is not only a geographical site—the region identified with Assam, in which the temple of the goddess Kamakhya is found—but also a locus within the subtle body. Here, the geographic symbolism plays itself out on a double register: Kamarupa is both that region of eastern India from which the Saktism identified with the Yogini Kaula is said to have originated''0 and a portion of the body, subtle or concrete, identified with feminine sexuality. The mythic perils of Matsyendranath are very likely a reflection of a cleav age within the tantric tradition. While a number of sects, including the Matsyendra's Yogini Kaula, incorporated sexual intercourse into their practice,91 others, including the Nath Siddhas whose main doctrinal expo nent was Gorakh, were overtly misogynous, treating sexuality (epitomized by the vulva) as a trap into which the yogin could fall and thereby lose all the benefits of his prior efforts (in the form of his precious semen).92 As Lillian Silburn explains, this cleavage may be reflected in two understand ings of the term fish belly, the one sexual and the other hathayogic: the yogin resides at the source of the movements of emanation and resorption of the universe, a state praised as matsyodarlmata because it is comparable to the stomach of the fish, which continuously con tracts and expands automatically. This realm of bliss has some con nection with sexual experience for, like the susumnd, the organs are subjected to a similar contraction and expansion conductive to an intimate union which, in a yogin, involves a perfect coincidence of Siva and the energy, of subject and object, of seed and womb. It is from this coincidence that supreme Beatitude and Consciousness originate.93
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The mythic cycle of the perils of Matsyendra, most fully developed in two ca. seventeenth-century Bengali-language dramas, the Mm Cetan (The Awakening of Mlna) and Goraksa (or Gorakha) Vijaya (Gorakh's Victory),"4 are a garden of yogic verse on human weakness and yogic mastery in the face of female sexuality. These works offer two mythic explanations for Matsyendra's fall. The first is connected to later versions of the myth of the revelations made by Siva on Moon Island: the Goddess, angry that Matsyendra has overheard a revelation reserved for her, curses him that he too will one day "fall asleep" and forget all he has overheard.'" A second account casts the Goddess as the "stepmother" of the four original Naths, whom she tests by tempting them with her sexual charms. When Matsyen dra becomes sexually aroused, she curses him to be debauched in the King dom of Women.96 The YSA97 explains Matsyendra's fall as a direct upshot of his yogic powers. Wishing to experience the sensual life of a king, Mat syendra performs the act of parakayapravesa, entering into the body of an other person.98 In this case, however, Matsyendra, debauched by Queen Kamala, into whose husband's body (King Trivikrama) he has entered, for gets his true yogic self.99 At this point, the western YSA account dovetails into the Bengali account of Gorakh's rescue of his guru (called Mlna in the Bengali song cycle) from the Kingdom of Women or, more properly, the Kadallrajya, the "Kingdom of the Plantain Forest," 10° which is generally located in Kamarupa (Assam) or Sirhhala (Sri Lanka).'01 The story opens when Gorakh learns, from Kaneri (or Kanha), another N'ath Siddha, that his guru is three days away from his death in the King dom of Women, where he has been the prisoner of sixteen hundred women.1"- The kingdom of Kadall, as Gorakh quickly learns, is prohibited to all males, save for the imprisoned "king" Matsyendra, and so it is neces sary for Gorakh to find a subterfuge. This he does by taking on the appear ance of a woman and engaging himself in a female musical troupe. It is in this disguise that Gorakh comes to the court of Queen Kamala and her sixteen hundred female subjects, where he finds his guru fallen into a swoon, at death's door.11" The music begins, and when Gorakh plays the first beat on his twoheaded drum, the drum sings out "Awaken, Matsyendra, Gorakh has come!" Upon hearing this drumbeat (nada),nH Matsyendra awakens from his stupor. But Gorakh and Matsyendra are not yet out of the woods. Gor akh must now return his guru's strength, His yogic powers to him."" This he does by urging him to perfect his body anew: kaya sadha, kaya sadha gunt mochandar.*06
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Homologous Stmctitres of the Alchemical Body
Ultimately, however, Gorakh must shock Matsyendra back into yogic consciousness. Matsyendra's fall into mundane consciousness is best sym bolized by a son, named Binduknath ("he who is formed of the drop [of yogically transformed semen]"), whom he has fathered on Kamala while her prisoner in Kadall. Gorakh kills and skins the boy, scrubs his skin like a washerman to remove all its bodily impurities, and hangs this skin on the roof to dry, like the hide of some skinned beast—all of these metaphors for yogic purification. Matsyendra and Kamala are horrified at this act, and when they bewail the murder of their son, Gorakh revives 108 Binduknaths! Seeing at last the illusion of the world to which he has become attached through his sexuality, Matsyendra now truly "awakens," and Gor akh leads him out of the Kingdom of Kadali (not before, however, the women of the kingdom attempt to take Gorakh's life—Gorakh avenges himself by transforming them into bats!).107 Let us dwell for a moment on the name of the kingdom into which Matsyendra has fallen into a sexual lethargy as the plaything of some six teen hundred women: Kadall Rajya is the Kingdom of the Plantain Forest. Why plantains? Our first clue comes from classical Indian poetics, in which the thighs of a beautiful woman are compared to the smooth, firm trunks of the plantain tree. In this perspective, Matsyendra has been lan guishing in a forest of beautiful thighs, a fair statement arrived at through simple arithmetic. Moreover, the plantain is that one of nine sacred trees representing the Goddess most closely associated with vegetative power. So it is that plantain fruit, a small banana with seeds in its interior, is used in fertility rites in Bengal, in which men swinging on hooks drop plantain fruits on women below. The imagery here needs no explanation.108 Else where, "plantain house" (kadalfgrha) is a term employed in Sanskrit drama to designate a pleasure garden in which the king assigned trysts with women to whom he was not yet wedded.10" This metaphor is greatly expanded in the south Indian Vlrasaiva poetry of Allama Prabhu or Prabhudeva, who time and again compares the human body, subject to passion and sorrow in a world of death and rebirth, to a plantain forest:110 I see no one who can conquer the body's vast plantain grove: the seven seas of the world encircle it. In life's vast wood the poisonous rain of the five senses pours. Anger's huge tiger roars and roars . . . The child of sin called greed is eating and eating .. . The well of passions cannot be used."1
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The Plantain Grove, Kadall Vana, to which Prabhudeva is referring, is first and foremost a geographical location: this is a grove at Srisailam, a cultic center of Virasaivism, but also an important center for such sects as the Kapalikas, Nath Siddhas, and Rasa Siddhas."-1 Quite unlike the nega tive portrayal Prabhudeva gives of his metaphorical Plantain Grove, the Kadall Vana at Srisailam was a source of healing herbs and magically reju venating waters. This tradition, however, of such a grove enclosing a pool of healing and life-giving waters is not original to this site or this period: in the third hook of the Mahdbhdrata, Bhlma finds such a pool in the midst of a plantain forest located on the flanks of the Himalayas!'" There are, in fact, a number of medieval literary references which sup port this reading of the Kadall Vana toponym. One of these is Malik Mu hammad Jayasl's sixteenth-century Padmdvat, a beautiful yogic allegory of the wooing of Padmavatl, princess of Sirhhala, by a prince-turned-Nath Siddha named Ratansen. This source makes more than one reference to a Kadall Van which, accessible to Siddhas alone, contains a "fountain of life." In this source, variant readings of Kajarf and Kajall are also given, variants which may be read in three ways. The term is either: (i) kadalivan, "plan tain forest," a place identified with the sensual life (as in the legends of Matsyendranath), but also with a grove of yogic realization and immortal ity (in the Padmdvat); (2) kajall van, "forest of black mercuric sulfide," of the mineral hierophany of the sexual essences of Siva and the Goddess, which does in fact constitute an elixir of immortality; or (3) kajarl van, identified with Zulmat, the name of the land of death and darkness (kaj[jjall also means "lampblack") to which Iskandar (Alexander the Great) traveled, according to Muslim legend.114 I have already discussed the first reading at length, The third reading is treated in the Padmavat with specific reference to Alexander, as well as to the prince-turned-Nath Siddha named Goplcand, who, realizing the tran sience of this world, left his kingdom and went to Kajarl Van, where he realized yogic perfection. Like Prabhudeva, Kablr identifies the Kajarl Van with the human body that is subjected to the trammels of carnal passions: "This body is a kajarf ban and the mind is an elephant gone mad, the jewel of wisdom is the goad but few are the Saints who can apply it!"" 5 Another source, the oral epic entitled the Alba Khand, has its eponymous hero schooled by Gorakhnath in the transitory nature of mundane existence and the virtues of the renunciant life. He follows Gorakh into Kajarl Forest, "a mysterious land from which it is said that someday he will return."" 6 The second reading, which combines the first and third (the alchemical
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
kajfj]all is both black in color and an elixir of immortality), would sound far-fetched, were it not for the fact that the same term is found, in a similar context, in another source. This is the Punjabi legend of the Nath Siddha named Puran Bhagat. This yogin has been dismembered (whence his alter nate name of Caurahginath, "Four-[dismembered]-limbs Nath"), thrown down a well, and left for dead by his evil stepmother, whose sexual advances he had refused. He prays to Gorakhnath, who restores him to wholeness and initiates him into the Nath order, following which Puran Bhagat re mains in his well for twelve years, at the end of which he attains immortal ity. Puran Bhagat's well—also a fountain of life of sorts—is located in Ka jall Van, near Sialkot (Jhelum district), in the Punjab state of Pakistan."7 The eighth -to twelfth-century Yoga Vasistha generates a polar opposition between the well and the forest that surrounds it: here, the human mind (which is trapped in an existence of its own making) is allegorized as a man who, having inflicted all manner of wounds upon his own body, plunges into a well (the torments of hell); he then leaves the well to enter into the Plantain Forest (the pleasures of heaven)."8 There are a number of levels upon which one may interpret these juxta positions, either of a well or fountain of life at the heart of a Plantain Forest identified with bodily proclivities, a Forest of Mercuric Sulfide, identified with bodily immortality, a land of death and darkness, identified with a failure to attain superhuman goals—or a combination of all three. Kajjali, which can be black poison for the uninitiated, is an elixir of immortal life for the consummate alchemist. Matsyendra's Kadall kingdom was un doubtedly a forest of women's thighs, in the midst of which he nearly lost his life—albeit through a form of tantric practice—but where he in the end realized yogic immortality through Gorakh's intervention. Puran Bha gat too should have died in his empty well in the midst of the Kajall Forest, but instead realized bodily immortality through his initiation by Gorakh. In the final analysis, the common theme to these evocations of an immor tality that one may grasp even in the midst of bodily sufferings is once again a tantric one. A woman's thighs can lead to the death of a yogin, but they can also constitute a "boat to immortality." Just as the kundalinl can both drain a yogin of his semen (in a process called called "eating poison" in one source) and transmute that essence into the draft of immortality, so too the space between a woman's thighs—the Kamarupa in the midst of her yoni—can arbor a fountain of life for the tantric practitioner who knows his way around." 9 The tantric hero (vira) of the Kaula traditions was precisely that excep-
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tional individual who was capable of experiencing, to its very limit, the life of the body in ways that would utterly destroy the beastlike noninitiate (pahi) for whom every venture into the prohibited world of feminine sexu ality was a deadly enterprise. Whereas the latter, bound like a sacrificial victim (pasti) to religious and social convention, could only come to know pain and death through the mystico-erotic practices of the tantric sects, the former could use the same to transcend the human condition and expe rience the bliss of Sivahood. We illustrate the double register, upon which the landscapes of the subtle body have been interpreted, with a chart: being-towards-death
overcoming death
normal respiration downward-flowing Ganges
swallowing into the fish-belly Fish-Belly Conjunction
sleeping kundalini kalagni underwater, simmering badava samsara adhoretas Kamarwpa/adhovaktra deadly Plantain Forest
rising kundalini kalagnirudra/yogagni exposed, upward flaring badava samhara urddhvaretas Car\dradvipa/yoginivtiktrti[-° rejuvenating Plantain Forest
3. Lunar, Empty, and Hg Wells in Hindu Tantrism In the last chapter, we spoke of the creative opposition between a bird in the vault of the "cranial" heavens and a serpent in the hollow of an "ab dominal" cave. Apart from their symbolization as bird and snake, these two poles of the Samkhyan hierarchy of elements, the alchemical hierarchy of metals, and the yogic hierarchy of the cakras may also be represented as a set of two wells. The image is a powerful one, in any tradition, for what is a well if not a channel between our sunlit world and the dark subterranean regions? Chthonic dragons guarding enchanted wells, wishing wells— common fare in western folklore, they attest to the universality of this theme. In the yogic and alchemical traditions, the first of these two wells is conventional, in the sense that it is upturned and set into the "base" of these parallel structures. The second well, corresponding to the upper end of these parallel hierarchies, is downturned and placed above the second. When the two are brought together into a double-well image, their com-
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
bination evokes the internal unity of these bipolar systems. The head and torso of the human body, the communicating chambers of a bicameral al chemical apparatus, the vault of heaven reflected in the waters at the bot tom of a well:1-'1 all of these are so many images of the unity in difference (bhedabheda) that is the hallmark of nondualist tantric thought. It is within such a symbol system that the locus of ether (kba, akasa, vyoman, sunya) in the human body is identified with the cranial vault, which is characterized, in a number of sources, as a downturned well. The terms kba and akasa at once signify, from the Upanisads onwards, "heaven," "cave," "hole," and "[empty] space." According to the Mahabharata, akasa has the following properties: it is the elemental substrate of sound (s'abda), it is all-permeating (vyapitoa), and it has the nature of a hollow or cavity (cbidratva).122 In Ayurvedic physiology as well, the ele ment ether is present in the body in the form of bodily cavities or orifices. In its quality as void or empty space, ether is vital to tantric worship: it is in a clearing within one's own being that one meditatively constructs the divine object of ritual devotion.1-" As I demonstrate, the realization of an analogous void is necessary to the hathayogin, in his quest for the ab solute. Since the time of the Upanisads, the seat of the soul has been located in the heart. l:4 There, the soul is suspended in the midst of a void that extends outwards for ten finger breadths from the core of the subtle body. The void or ether (kba, akasa) of the heart remains a key notion in Hinduism, down into the Tantras. 1 " However, the concept of another "inner void" also emerges in the Upanisads to continue down into the tantric period. This is the void of the medial channel of the subtle breath, which bisects the subtle body vertically.126 This channel, running upward from the muladhara cakra through the heart (which bisects the body horizontally), ends in the "cleft of brahman" (brahmarandhra), the fontanelle, in the top of the cranial vault. Whence the statement in the Kathaka Upanisad (6.16): "There are a hundred and one channels of the heart. One of these passes up to the crown of the head. Going up by it, one goes to immortality." It is this channel, but more especially the upper endpoint of its trajec tory, that the Nath Siddhas and a number of other tantric schools identify with the ether or void, which they also call kba or sunya. For the Nath Siddhas, sunya is at once the highest metaphysical principle (param tattoa), die cranial vault or fontanelle, and the abode of Siva.1'7 Here, the impor tance of the ether lies not in what it is but rather in that which it contains in its empty space—and here, once again, yogic and alchemical elixirs be-
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come identified with one another, this time through their association with the "wells" in which both are found. In no other medieval Indian tradition do we find greater importance attached to this image, of the body as a set of wells, than in that of the Nath Siddhas. Gorakhnath, who uses the terms gagan [mandal], sunya, and kha[2v to speak of the cranial vault, also states, in perhaps his most renowned bani: "In the circle of ether is an inverted well that is the place of nectar. He who has a guru drinks his fill; he who has no guru goes thirsty."129 Here, Gorakhnath's well of nectar in the ether is at once the seventh and upper most cakra, the thousand-petaled sahasrara located in the cranial vault, and the moon, repository of immortal soma, shining in the heavens. The moon, identified with the god Candra/Soma, has been viewed as a primal source of ambrosia since the time of the Rg Veda.xw In Gorakhnath's bani, the downturned well that quenches mortal man's thirst for the nectar of immortal ity is identified with the soma that is the stuff of the full moon. Another of Gorakhnath's poems, contained in the Gydn Calisa (Forty Gnostic Stanzas),1" combines the image of the well with the attainment of yogic and alchemical siddhis. Here, the yogin who fills the akds'a (the ether of the cranial vault) with water from a subterranean well gains bodily im mortality and the power of transmutation. The same symbolism is found in a number of poems of Kablr, the language and imagery of whose mystic poetry was greatly influenced by the verses of Gorakhnath. In one of these, Kablr says: "The well of heaven has its opening below; its bucket is in the underworld (pdtale); the hamsa drinks of its water, but few know of its source." 1 " In another, he speaks of a land with "an inverted well, with an opening, as narrow as a thread, through which the married soul draws water . .. From the well in the lotus above, the devotee drinks the nectar."1" These images are similar to those found in a longer poem by Gorakh nath, who once again uses the dynamics of drawing water from a well to describe the workings of the subtle body.1" Here, he compares the human body to a city filled with all manner of hungry and thirsty animals, which are so many allegorical representations of the human condition. So the cows and buffalo of the city, tethered to the stake of illusion, represent the absence of discrimination (aviveka), while its dogs are the mind that steals away and conceals true knowledge. In this city, however, is a well whose water slakes these animals' thirst (for liberation). From this well, the women of the city draw water which they carry in pitchers on their heads— and these pitchers thus constitute portable wells. In this way, there are two
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Homologous Stnutures of the Alchemical Body
metaphorical wells in the city, the well set into the earth and that which takes the form of water pots on the women's heads. On the level of the bodily microcosm, the interpretation is the follow ing: the well set into the earth here is the miiladhara, the lowest of the cakras from which the yogin's semen, the raw material of his bodily trans formation, is raised. As it rises along the length of the medial susumna nadi, this semen is transformed into nectar. This process is consummated in the uppermost sahasrara cakra—the thousand-petaled lotus located in the cra nial vault, the ethereal sphere of the void—sunya or gagan mandal—which is figured in Gorakh's poem by the water pot atop the female water bearers' heads. Just as these female water carriers (who may be further identified with the kundalint) slake the thirst of the animals in Gorakh's metaphorical city, so the yogin's refined semen, now transformed into nectar, fills the "void city" {sunya purt) of the cranial vault. When allowed to flow back downwards, it floods the yogin's body with its fluid of immortality.1" This poem schematically portrays the yogin's body as two vessels, a lower well and an upper water pot, of which the lower is a source of energy and raw materials and the higher the container of the subtle immortalizing essence of those raw materials. In a Nath Siddha legend as well, a similar identification is made between the body and two superposed water pots carried on a woman's head. In the tale of Guru Guga, or Guga Plr, a lowcaste woman speaks of her body in terms of these, protesting to Guga that she cannot give him water to drink from her earthen pot (because the vessel of her body is impure). Guga lets fly an arrow, smashing the two pots si multaneously, to which the woman reacts with the words "Look at the state of my body; thou hast broken my two pitchers."1"' Once again, we find an echo of this imagery in Kablr (even if he is mocking the Siddhas in the same verse): "Between the sky and the netherworld, in the space between the two gourds [is the Path]: the six dars'anas tripped and tumbled down along with the eighty-four Siddhas!"" 7 In the raising of vital breath, seed, and energy, it is at the level of the navel that a preponderance of raw semen and thermal yogic energy yield to a preponderance of cool, refined nectar; therefore, it is here that the mouths of the upper and lower "wells" of the yogic body are joined. So it is that we find a metaphorical symmetry between these two poles or "wells" of yogic imagery. Above, male semen, moon, soma, nectar, Siva, fluidity, and coolness are identified with an upper well; and below, female uterine blood, sun, fire, energy, the Goddess, dessication, and heat are localized in a lower well.
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
This image of the body as a well into which the yogin enters in order to succeed in his sadhanas carries over into Nath Siddha myth and legend as well. The fullest account to bring such imagery into play is the Punjabi legend of Puran Bhagat, already mentioned above, who is dismembered and thrown into an empty, broken-down well (jlrnandhakupa). Gorakhnath comes to rescue and restore him, after which he returns to the well to per form yogic austerities for twelve years: when he emerges, he has been trans formed into a Siddha."8 Down to the present day, Punjabi women come, on the new moon, to partake of the cool healing waters of Puran Bhagat's well (which is no longer empty), which are said to cure barrenness.139 In a number of versions of the GopTcand legend cycle, this Nath Siddha seals his guru Jalandharanath (or Hadi-pa) into a well; upon his release from the well, again after twelve years, Jalandharanath reduces metal effig ies of Goplcand to ashes.140 A nineteenth-century hagiography has Mastnath, another Nath Siddha, creating a well to save the besieged city of his princely protege Man Singh.I4' Gorakhnath dries up wells in anger, but also fills wells that are empty.14- Elsewhere, he throws gold bricks or coins into a well near Kamakhya, thereby turning its waters to gold. When his teacher, Matsyendranath, insists that such will upset the order of the world, Gorakhnath turns the well water into crystal; and this is the origin of crys tal in the world.143
semen are simultaneously raised into the cranial vault, the abode of Siva. It also evokes a regressus ad uterum from which the yogin, like the Vedic sacrificer in his initiation hut and the Ayurvedic patient in his womb hut, emerges, reborn, as well as the ultimate alchemical operation described in the RA, in which the alchemist's own body becomes the corpus alchymicum when he plunges into a cauldron of boiling oil.14S We will return to this image, of a Siddha entering a well that is a mesocosmic double of his own body, in chapter ten. Wells are generally considered to possess healing properties, the well of Vaidyanath in Benares—as well as Puran's Well and wells of Gorakh in Kacch (Gujarat) and other Nath Siddha holy sites throughout India146— being prime examples.147 Many tantras contain instructions for the dedica tion of wells to the Goddess; and while the sakta pitbas are not wells them selves, they are generally located in the proximity of a well or spring.148 The HYP (1.13) instructs yogins to live alone in a small monastery in whose courtyard a well should be located. The alchemist's laboratory should also be equipped with a well in its northeast corner, which is that part of the laboratory in which are also housed his all-important transmut ing elements.149
Nath Siddha accounts of yogins who create and enter into wells in order to meditate seem to parallel Taoist myths of "old men of the gourd" who suspend a gourd from the roofbeam of their huts and enter into the uni verse of that gourd in order to attain the Absolute, the Tao. The Taoist alchemical sources dating from the first half of the first millennium A.D. are particularly rich in legends on this subject, such as the following: Che Ts'ouen, who came from Lu, was a student of the Great Alchem ical Path. After meeting Chang Chen, he became the administrator of Yun-t'ai (i.e. the mountain called Chiang-su). It was his habit to suspend a hu[-lu] vessel of about ten liter's volume [from the roof of his house]. This huf-luj vase transformed itself into Heaven and Earth; it contained sun and moon. Che Ts'ouen passed his nights there, and called himself "Heaven in a [Double-JGourd" (bu-t'ien). The people called him the "Old Man of the Gourd." Following this he realized the Tao [and became an immortal].144 As in the Taoist case, entering into a well is, for the Nath Siddhas, tanta mount to entering into yogic practice, in which consciousness, breath, and
Yet another case of such structural homologies between body, alchemi cal apparatus, and universe is to be found in the tantric geography of the Indian subcontinent. In the last chapter, we briefly passed in review a num ber of alchemical hierophanies found at such sakta pithas as I liriglaj in Ba luchistan and Kamakhya in Assam.1"1' In addition to these, such important Saiva sites as Girnar in Gujarat151 and Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh152 are also possessed of alchemical mythologies. The most systematic and strik ing example of the geographical and geological macrocosm reproducing the alchemical and yogic macrocosm is that found, however, at Kedarnath, an important and ancient Siva temple built over ajyotirlinga located in the Chamoli district of northwestern Uttar Pradesh. The final stage of this pilgrimage, the fifteen kilometers that separate the village of Gauri Kund and the temple of Kedarnath itself, has been marked, at least as far back as the twelfth century and down to the present day, by a series of natural springs or pools (kuiids). Down in the village of Gauri Kund (this being the name of a natural hot-water spring in which pilgrims bathe), a reddish, sulfurous pool close by the side of the Gauri Temple is known as Rtu Kund ("the menses pool," where the Goddess takes her menstrual bath), while at the upper end of this final stage and some thousand meters higher in elevation, behind the temple of Siva Kedarnath
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
the place. Here, the seven pools of Ataka, crowned by a door, a sword, a river, and a philosopher's stone, appear to be so many representations of the yogic body and the raising of the kundalini up to the seventh cakra which, when pierced, yields the nectar of immortality.155 Another parallel may be found in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition, mentioned in the previous chapter, of the cave known as Ca-ri in south eastern Tibet. This cave, entered through a narrow cleft identified with the Goddess'syoni, opens into a series of caves and lakes (inhabited by gods, goddesses, and ddkinis), which are explicitly identified with the nadts and cakras of the Buddhist subtle body. The pilgrim who follows the subterra nean passages of this "womb-cave" to their very end is in fact effecting the ascent of the goddess Vajravarahi's medial channel, from her yoni up to her brabmarandhra. The pilgrim, borne upward as it were by streams of divine blood, semen, and sindura (mercuric oxide), concretely effects the union of Prajfia and Upaya (the Buddhist homologues of Siva and Sakti) and su preme realization.156 In addition to the important role they play in alchemical geography and the poetry of yogic experience, wells also are vital, as we saw in the last chapter, to myths of the origin of mercury.157 Also in the last chapter, we reproduced an account, from the RRS and other sources, of the extrac tion of mercury from one such well, in Darada-desa, by knowers of tantra {tantrajiias) and semidivine Wizards (vidyddharas). This is the technique by which a maiden on horseback entices mercury to rise up out of its well and pursue her over hill and dale. Once it has been caught in troughs dug to this end, these sources tell us that this mercury is purified in a sublimation apparatus (pdtana yantra).15* The medieval alchemists in fact knew of three types of sublimating ap paratus (yantras)1™ for the extraction (dkrsti) of mercury from cinnabar, i.e., the naturally occuring mercuric sulfide (darada) in which it is most commonly found: these are the apparatus of upward sublimation (firddhvapdtana), downward sublimation (adhopdtana), and transverse sublimation (tiryakpdtana). In all three apparatus, mercury is made to sublimate and thereby leave behind its residual impurities in the ores in which it naturally occurs (or with which it is amalgamated), and thereafter to recondense through the interposition of cold water.160 The upward-sublimation apparatus is composed of two superimposed vessels, whose mouths are sealed together with several layers of mudsmeared cloth stretched across their interface. A slow fire beneath the lower vessel heats a mixture of herbs and powdered mercury ore, mercuric
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sulfide, most often in the form of cinnabar. The mercury that evaporates upwards condenses on the inner surface of the downturned base of the upper chamber, which is cooled from above by a cloth soaked in cold water (or by a superimposed cold-water recipient). The mercury that has con densed on this downturned inner surface has a smoky luster to it: when rubbed with a cloth, it immediately takes on the properties of fluidity, lus ter, etc. one associates with pure quicksilver. In the bottom of the lower vessel there remains the dross of this reaction: free sulfur together with other mineral and plant matter, oxidized and devoid of its original mer cury content."'1 Because of the function it serves, this apparatus is known as the urddhvapatana. This is not, however, the sole name by which it is known: a number of medieval alchemical sources also call it the damaru yantra (Siva's twoheaded drum apparatus),"'' the sambhavi mudra (the hermetic seal of Sambhu, Siva),"'1 and the vidyadbara yantra, the "wizard apparatus."164 This first term clearly refers to the shape of this apparatus, the second to a technique of hatba yoga, and the third to both such a technique and to the mythic Wizards who were the innovators of a body of techniques that, precisely, fused alchemical and yogic practice into a single Saiva system. The structure and dynamics of this yantra appear to replicate the dy namics of yogic reversal—known as urddhvaretas from the time of the Mahabharata—as such is described by Gorakhnath in his poems about wells and water jars. In this case, the upper chamber of the apparatus is the dow nturned celestial well in the yogin's head, and the lower chamber the matrix of matter and energy—in the "pot" formed by the diaphragm through the hathayogic technique called kumbhaka—from which the gross elements are caused to rise through heating. The fire beneath and cool water atop the two chambers complete the parallel. These are the equivalent of the visceral sun and cranial moon, through the balancing of which the yogin comes to enjoy the nectar (mercury, the refined semen of Siva) that "con denses" to ooze downward from the top of the cranial vault, the lunar circle. These parallels are made explicit in a number of medieval texts. In the fifteenth-century alchemical Rasendracintamani of Dhundhukanatha, this bicameral alchemical apparatus is termed sambhavi mudra. Now, this same term is used, in the Amanaskayoga of Goraksanatha, to introduce a yogic technique that that text seems to identify with the vidyadbara yantra: "Here is the description of the sambhavi mudra: The fist [?] above and the gaze
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
(drsti) below, the cleft (bheda) above and the channels (sirah) below, one becomes liberated in the body by using the [vidyaldhara-yantra."16' I Iere, the yogin whose "gaze" and "channels" are below is clearly stand ing on his head: the sole description of a hathayogic technique in which the term sirah is employed in the plural is that of the "chin lock," or jalandhara bandha, so called in honor of the great Nath Siddha, but also in refer ence to the "net[workJ" or "ganglia" (Jala??/) of channels which meet in the region of the throat. This practice effects a lock {bandha) on these channels and thus seals off the head as the recipient (dhara) of the nectar held in the cranial vault and not allowed to fall downward into the fire of the sun in the yogin's lower abdomen: jala?/i-dhara bandha. This upside-down version of that technique is the structural parallel to the vidya-dhara yantra: the two chambers of the alchemical apparatus are the head and torso of the yogin, the mud-smeared layers of cloth stretched across their mouths are the net work of channels, and the nectar that is held in the head is the mercury that condenses on the incurved inner surface of the downturned upper chamber.166 A number of other interpretations of this verse are possible, including a sexual one: the Yoni Tantra employs the term dharaka to signify both "vulva" and "vessel."167 Most alchemical sources enjoin the practitioner to follow his use of the urddhvapatana yantra with that of the adhopatana yantra, the "apparatus of downward sublimation": after having sublimated mercury three times in the former, one is to do so seven times in the latter.168 The adhopatana yantra is identical to the urddhvapatana with the difference that in this case, the "cool" chamber is placed rightside-up in a hollow dug into the ground. Its mouth is bonded to that of the "hot" chamber, here placed facedown, with the cooking fire burning atop its upturned base. In this case, one smears the inner surface of this downturned "hot" chamber with an amal gam of mercury and copper. When this is heated, the mercury sublimates and falls down into the "cool" chamber, which is this time filled with water. There, it recondenses into its natural, but purified and stabilized, form.169 The adhopatana yantra is in fact a closer homologue to the upside-down yogic posture Gorakhnath describes in his Amanaskayoga than is the vidyadbara (or urddhvapatana) itself. In both the alchemical adhopatana yantra
and the dhara yantra described by Gorakhnath, the "seminal" fluid, trans formed by a heat source located above, drips downward to remain (held there by gravity) in the reversed upper chamber of the apparatus or, in the yogic case, of the cranial vault. This posture also evokes the viparltakarana,
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or "reverse practice" of yoga, which Gorakhnath praises in his Goraksa Sataka (133-35) as a foolproof method for retaining in one's head the pre cious nectar one has so carefully distilled from "raw" semen. Here, the description of the posture itself is clearly the inspiration for that of the dharayantra, in everything but name: "The navel above, the palate below; the sun above and the moon below."170 Gorakh refers to this posture in one of his banis, in which he says to hold the yantra upside-down (ulati yantr dhare) by standing on one's head. These structures and dynamics of the alchemical body become dramatized in a nineteenth-century hagiography of Lalla, or Lai Ded, the fourteenth-century Kashmiri mystic poetess, who demonstrated "true penance" to her guru Srikantha. "She placed an earthen pot on her head and another under her feet; and with the waning of the moon, her body waned till, on the fifteenth night of the dark fortnight (amavas), nothing was left of her except a little quantity of trembling quick silver. Then, with the waxing moon her body waxed and, on the full-moon night, she was herself again."171 This body of Hindu practices, which incorporates alchemical and hathayogic techniques, bears striking similarities to an earlier Taoist tradi tion, which constitutes a still more graphic projection of alchemical imag ery upon the subtle body. This is the practice termed "feeding the vital principle." This technique, described in a fourth-century Chinese source, the Taishang ruling dayou miaojing, represents the human body as a set of three "cinnabar fields," of which the uppermost, located in the head, con tains an ordered hierarchy of nine "palaces." The third and innermost of these palaces, the Palace of the Cinnabar Field, is the culminating point of breath absorption, the Taoist precursor of the Indian pranayama. Immedi ately behind this is the fourth palace, called the "Palace of Moving Beads," i.e., of quicksilver, fluid mercury. Once again, the question of whether these striking parallels—between this feature of the archaic Taoist body and the "alchemical body" of Hinduism—are reflective of cultural and sci entific exchanges between China and India in this period, a period follow ing the export of Indian Buddhism into China, must remain outside the scope of the present study.172 The basic structure of the Hindu alchemical yantras, with their downturned upper and upturned lower chambers, may be taken as a model for both the universe and the human body. Another somewhat simpler homology to the vidyadbara yantra is the two-chambered damaru (indeed, there exists an alchemical damaru yantra as well),175 the "shaman's drum" carried by the god Siva and his sectarian followers throughout north India and
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Homologous Structures of the Alche?nical Body
Nepal, as well as by Tibetan Buddhist monks. This is an instrument made from two conical or hemispherical drums, joined together at their tapered ends, with their heads facing outwards. Held at its tapered middle, the damaru is played by turning the wrist back and forth such that a bead or thong, attached by a cord to the tapered portion, strikes the two heads in alternation. The two chambers of the drum—like those of the vidyadbara yantra, the upper and lower halves of the human body, and the upturned and downturned wells of the macrocosm—represent the bipolar relation ship between feminine and masculine principles common to so many mys tic Hindu traditions. These are the states of involvement in and renun ciation of the manifest world through which the human yogin alternately passes, in imitation of the divine yogin, whose yogic withdrawal from and return to mundane consciousness mark the successive resorptions (pralayas) and emissions (srstis) of the cosmic eons. The bead that successively strikes the two ends of the damaru to emit the drum's sound (nada) is also identifiable with the mercury that evapo rates out of one chamber of these yantras to sublimate in the other. It also represents the yogin's seed (called bija, which is often closely identified, in tantrism, with nada)'7* which rises (urddhvaretas)17- with the kundalini and
returns to the lower body when the yogin returns to mundane conscious ness and activities at the conclusion of his austerities. It is another sort of two-headed drum (called a mrdanga) that Gorakh nath carries in the legend already discussed, in which he "awakens" his teacher Matsyendranath from a life of debauchery in the Kingdom of Women with the first beat (nada) that he strikes on it. Tibetan Buddhism, whose lists of Mahasiddhas include the names of Gorakh, Mlna, and other illustrious figures who came to be identified with the Nath Siddhas, also uses the damaru in its ritual practice. A number of damarus, used by prac titioners of tantric Buddhism in Mongolia and Tibet,176 are fashioned from two human skulls, joined together near the fontanelle, with a rectangular hole177 drilled between them which, establishing communication between the two hemispheres, "allows the instrument to breathe and thereby have a better sound." This hole is called the nada.17* The damaru player gener ally holds a bell (ghanta) in his left hand, which thereby complements the damaru held in the right. Taken together, the two are said, in the Vajrayana context, to symbolize sun and moon, the right and left channels, and skill in means (upaya) and wisdom (prajna),'7<> the Buddhist homologues to Siva and Sakti. More than this, the two skulls which make up the drum are ideally those of a sixteen-year-old young man and a sixteen-year-old
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maiden. Of course, sixteen is a figure signifying wholeness or plenitude in these traditions, but it will be recalled that the origin of this identification goes back to the lunar symbolism of hathayogic practice: sixteen is the number of digits in the full moon that brims with nectar in the fully real ized yogin's head."*" Another source from the same Vajrayana tradition reproduces this structural homology of the two chambers as the two peripheral channels. In a Carya song (no. 3), Viruva-pa analogizes the fermentation of wine with the dynamics of yogic breath control:18' The female wine-dealer [avadhutl, the Buddhist kundalim] is alone, but she seals together the two chambers [the two channels, sun and moon] and introduces the powder for fermenting the wine [bodbicitta, semen]. The wine [varum']1*2 now flows [borne upward on the subtle breaths] straight to the Sahaja [sahasrara] and that brings immortality. On seeing the sign [of the wine] at the tenth door [the brahmadvdra, at the upper endpoint of the central channel],18' the customer [the yogin] comes of himself and drinks the nectar from the lotus of great bliss [mahasukha, the Buddhist sahasrara].
With these astonishing structural homologies, we are brought back to the cranial vault in which we began this section and to the fusion of all the polarities we have been discussing.
4. Mouths and Doors: The Khecari Mudra in Tantric Practice The bipolar locations, on a vertical axis, of male mercury and semen above and female sulfur and uterine blood below are but one means to charting the basic structure of a hierarchized tantric universe. However, in a tantric metaphysics that stresses unity-in-difference (bbeddbheda), or nondualityin-duality (dvaitadvaita), there has as well to be a stress on equipose, equiv alence, and equanimity, on the union or coincidence of polar opposites. In practical terms, the factoring of the two into the one has been perennially enacted, in tantra, through sexual union between practitioner and consort. However, every subtle body is, in the traditions under study, intrinsically androgynous, being divided along the vertical axis between male and fe male halves after the fashion of Ardhanarlsvara, the "half-female" form of Siva. Following an Indian (if not human) commonplace that a woman's place is on the distaff, the left side of her husband, the image of Siva Ardha-
Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
narlsvara comprises the right half of Siva's body and the left half of that of Sakti, the Goddess. With this, we are brought back to our discussion of a subtle body whose left or western (pascima) side is female (in spite of the fact that the lunar, male ida channel issues from the left nostril and the solar piiigala from the right). As I have argued, the subtle landform known as Moon Island is located either in the left side of the lower abdomen or cranial vault. It is in the cranial vault that the complementary processes of breath, seed, and mind control culminate in the production of nectar, a new yogic body, and the state of total yogic integration that is samadhi.WA The prac titioner cannot, however, merely fill his head with transmuted semen and expect instant immortality. In the last chapter, I evoked the yogic and alchemical notions of khecara, "moving in the ether," and the eroticomystical and hathayogic technique of vajroli mudra, while a moment ago I discussed the image of the cranial vault as an empty space (kha, sunya) or well that comes to be filled with nectar through a variety of yogic tech niques. At least one hathayogic source designates the practice of khecari mudra, "the seal of moving in the ether," as the culmination of vajroli mudra and samarasa.[>>s The KhV,-w\\\c\\ treats of every imaginable variation upon the theme of khecara, includes discussions of the khecari mudra, the khecari mantra, and the khecari cakra.m' We now turn to a closer examination of this hotly of techniques. Although a passage in the Maitri Upanisad appears to allude to this prac tice, the classic description of khecari mudra as a hathayogic practice is found in the Goraksa Sataka: "The consciousness wanders in the ether (khe) because the tongue, having entered into the hollow (khe) above the throat moves about. For this reason, the khecari mudra is revered by all accom plished yogins." In practical terms, khecari mudra is a technique that enables the yogin to retain in his cranial vault the nectar that he has accumulated there through his practice. Here, rather than allowing that nectar to fall into the fiery sun at the base of his spine, even when "in the embrace of a beautiful woman,"187 the yogin internally drinks that transmuted semen and is thereby rendered immortal. The key to the technique of khecari mudra lies in the left/right division of the human body and the hathayogic notion of mudra itself. In literal terms, the various mudras are so many "seals," by which the yogin is able to close off or isolate portions of the subtle body, or the body in its entirety, in order to realize the "pneumatic" or "hydraulic"188 feats of his craft. As does the alchemist with his various apparatus, the yogin must begin his
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practice by hermetically sealing his body off from the outside environ ment. This he does by closing the "nine doors," the bodily orifices.189 Fol lowing this, through the practice of breath control, etc., he gradually closes off all of the seventy-two thousand nddis, the breath and energy channels in his body, save the medial susumna, through which he will raise his breath, seed, and mind up into his cranial vault. According to the yogic physiology of the subtle body, the susumna actu ally branches into two conduits, at the level of the medulla oblongata (mastaka granthi). Here, one branch veers slightly to the left,1''0 towards the "lunar" side of the body, at which point it connects with the tenth channel, called the s'ankhini, the "conch."191 It is this turn, as well as an inner aper ture known as the tenth door (das'ama dvara), that affords the yogin the possibility of preserving and using to his advantage the nectar he has chan neled upward to this point. In order to effect khecari mudra, the yogi forces the tip of his tonguesback and upwards into the opening at the back of the soft palate. Then, by concentrating his gaze inwardly to a point between the eyebrows, he causes his "capitalized" nectar to flow, via the s'ankhini, into the throat, where he drinks it. This process was explained to me by a young yogin of the Juna Akhada195 (a suborder of the "militant" Naga division of the DasnamI or der, a division that has long been closely related to the Nath Siddhas), whom I met on the Kedarnath pilgrimage trail in May 1984. As he de scribed it, all depended on forcing the Goddess (kundalint) up into the head, from whence the rain of nectar (amrtavarsa) would flood down into the body through the mrtyunjaya nddi, a synonym for the s'ankhini.m It is here that yet another sort of doubling occurs in the subtle physiol ogy. First, the Amaraughasasana explicitly states that the tenth door is two fold (dvividha), composed of "the seminal path of immortality, and the path of death."19S The former of these is the "upper mouth" of the s'ankhini, located in the cranial vault, within the subtle rajadanta, the "royal tooth," which resembles an ivory tusk. It is this tenth door that one causes to open through the practice of khecari mudra.196 The latter, the lower mouth of the s'ankini, is the place where the medial channel issues into the cranial vault: by closing off this aperture, the yogin ensures that the nectar in his cranial vault will not drain back down this channel and fall into the fire of the sun at the base of his subtle body.197 Not only are there two mouths to the s'ankhini, but there appear to be two s'ankhbiis as well. On the one hand, the Goraksa Sataka (v. 31) states that this duct is located at the base (jnulasthdne) of the body; on the other, this "conch," spiral or curved in form, is doubled
by the two-mouthed kundalini, who can also at times be referred to as s'ankhini.™ Whence Gorakh's succinct statement: "The tongue and penis are [joined by] a single channel. He who retains [his rasa within it] tricks Time."199 With this, all the yogin needs to know is which valves to open and which to close. The identification of the two-mouthed s'ankhini with a channel originat ing in the left side of the cranial vault evokes one of the esoteric classifica tion systems of the postscriptural systematization of the Hindu tantras. This is the pascimamnaya or Western Transmission, a tradition marked by a certain emphasis on hathayoga and by its cult of the goddess Kubjika, the "crooked one,"200 whose teachings were brought into the world on a lunar western mountain (Candragiri) or island (Candradvlpa), associated with the western face (Sadyojata) of Siva. As already argued, these "western" venues correspond less to the topography and toponymy of the Indian sub continent than to the physiology of the subtle body. On the one hand, the western direction, when transposed upon the bodily microcosm, becomes the left side of the body; and indeed, one Nath Siddha poem refers to a "western door" (paschima dvara). This corresponds to an internal "western linga" of which there are two, another case of doubling in the subtle body.201 In a universe identified with the Goddess's subtle body, microcosm and macrocosm can at times become confused. So, for example, the MBhT states that Srlnatha is situated on the left side (vdmabhdgastbd); and in fact, he is the consort of the Goddess at the westernmost pitba of the subcon tinent, at Hiriglaj, the site identified as the Goddess's fontanelle (brahmarandhra).202
Two other readings of pas'cima are possible here. Mark Dyczkowski ar gues that the term is to be taken temporally: the pascimamnaya is the "sub sequent" or "latter" transmission, as opposed to the "former" transmission of the purvdmnaya.20i Elsewhere, Gorakhnath identifies the medial susumna channel with the pascimamarga or pascimapatha in his Yogabija.20* Now, one
could read this latter compound as "western path," and perhaps even as "subsequent [to the emptying of the left and right channels] path." One could also, however, read pas'cima here as "back" as opposed to purva, "front." In this case, the pas'cimadvara, pascimamarga,
and pas'cimalinga,
would be the "back (i.e., secret, difficult of access) door," the "back way," and the "linga at the [entrance to the] back [way]." We now return to the mouths at the ends of the channels we have been discussing. In Abhinavagupta's discussion of the "clan sacrifice" (kulaydga), we are told that "knowledge is to be placed in the mouth of a woman and
»5<S
Chapter Eight then taken from the mouth of [that same] woman." The woman in question is the tantric practitioner's consort {dutt) in erotic Kaula ritual practice, and her mouth is her sexual organ.20' Such is also stated clearly in the Vdma?narga, a twentieth-century guide to ritualized tantric sex, in which the male adept is enjoined to assimilate himself to Siva and his partner to the Goddess and offer his father-mouth into her mother-mouth.-''"' There are, in fact, two mouths at play here as well, or rather a single aperture which, located at the apex of a mystic triangle in the mulddhdra cakra, is called the "lower mouth" (adhovaktra) when it is turned down wards, at which time it feeds into the (female) sexual organ. When through yogic or erotico-mystical practice the same is turned upwards, however, it is called the "chief mouth" or the "mouth of the yogini" and is identified with the womb of consciousness, the "circle of bliss from which the energy of emission (visargasakti)flowsforth as kundalinl. . . the matrix of creation, and the essence of Kaula doctrine."-'"7 Similarly, the Manthdnabhairava Tantra of the Western Transmission speaks of an upper and a lower yoni, lo cated at the base and the upper end of the medial channel.208 In the midst of so many mouths, let us recall here that each tantric system had its own variations on the subtleties of the subtle body, making it impossible to gen erate a single, unified account of the two upper branches of the split susumiid channel, the two "conch ducts," the two "tenth doors," the two "western lingas" the two "jyow/'s," the two "mouths of the yogini," etc. As in erotico-mystical practice, so too in alchemy, the practitioner must reckon with the body's doors and mouths. So it is that the MBhT (9.19) states that the alchemist, once he has ingested edible mercury (together with meat and a woman's milk), must close the nine doors. More often than actually swallowing said mercury, the alchemist will hold it in his mouth, under his tongue or in a hollow he has cut into his palate. But this mercury, held in the alchemist's mouth, is said to possess, at a certain stage of its preparation, a mouth or mouths of its own, with which it swallows, or more literally, "has its mouthful (grdsa)" of the elements it causes to dissolve within itself. In these intermediate phases of its preparation, mercury may be either "mouthed" (sa-mukha) or "mouthless" (nir-mukha).209 As we saw earlier in this chapter, hermetically sealing two mouths of a two-chambered apparatus is also vital to the alchemist's craft. Here, while the term mudra may be employed, it is the term \sam\puta that more often comes into play. A puta is a capsule or envelope, generally having the form of a closed crucible formed by placing two earthen plates face to face and sealing the joint between them with seven layers of mud-smeared cloth.
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Homologous Structures of the Alchemical Body
This container is placed in the midst of a fire pit filled with cow dung cakes, which provide constant and controlled heat, for the roasting of mercury in combination with various metallic and herbal elements.210 In fact, when any two halves of a dual, bipolar system (a man and a woman for example) are brought together in tantric sources, it is generally the term samputa ("interlocked," "encased") or samputlkarana ("interlock ing," "encasement") that is employed.2" Applications of this term extend well beyond the realm of alchemical apparatus to a number of yogic and tantric configurations as well. In tantric initiation, for example, the guru is said at one point to encase himself, or his mouth, in the body or mouth of his initiate.-'12 While there can be no doubt that an exchange of substance takes place between the guru and his disciple in tantric initiation, and that the guru symbolically enters into the body of his initiate, the precise nature and location of this mouth-to-mouth transfer is difficult to pinpoint. While phrases like "give me [your] mouth in [my] mouth" 2 " would lead one to imagine that the guru actually locks his mouth over that of his initi ate, at least one other reading is possible. This latter reading would have the guru entering his disciple's subtle body to place his mouth at the mouth of the sankhinl nadl and thereby open that "valve" to liberation in the body.214 Alternatively, the guru, having filled his mouth with the nectar falling from his own sankhinl nadl, then transfers that nectar directly into the mouth of his disciple. In many forms of tantric initiation, the guru is described as coursing through the body of his initiate, in which he enters into union with the initiate's s'akti and opens his channels to liberation.2151 discuss important parallels between the language of initiation of this sort and that of alchemical transmutation in the penultimate chapter of this book. In the physiology of the subtle body, the two nostrils, as well as the lunar and solar channels that issue in them, are termed putas. In hathayogic practice, these two putas are said to "swoon" or fall "lifeless" when the seal that joins them together is pierced, by the opening of the medial susumnd.216 Yet another yogic use of this notion may be found in the term 'interlocking crow's beak" (kdkacancu-puta), which is a synonym for khecari'mudra.111 As we know, the khecari mudra of hatha yoga is a technique by which the practitioner ensures himself the benefits of the fluid of immortality he has culled through long yogic practice.218 While the alchemical sources first treat khecari as the power of flight attained by mercury when it reaches a perfected, stable, solid state, they also reserve a yogic application for the
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term.219 Mercury is rendered khecari by refining, stabilizing, and fortifying it, in the urddhvapatana and other apparatus, in red "female" sulfur. A pill of khecari mercury, held in the yogin's mouth during his sadhanas, catalyzes the transmutation of his semen into nectar and greatly multiplies his pow ers and longevity. This practice, called giitika bandha, is in fact the ultimate end, the final samskara of the alchemist's art: the application of perfected mercury to his own body (s'arfra yoga). Treated at length in hathayogic and alchemical sources alike, this is the prime alchemical adjunct to yogic practice.220 We will return to these final ends of yoga and alchemy in chapter ten.
5. Two Architectural Mesocosms Earlier in this chapter, I showed that the wells of poem and legend into which Nath Siddhas entered in their meditative practices were the mystic homologues of their own cranial vaults. In Ayurveda, the practice of "en tering into the hut" (kuti praves'a) is cast as a return to the womb. Another mesocosmic world of the same order, which the tantric practitioner may create and inhabit as a means to identifying body and universe, self and absolute, is the alchemical laboratory, appropriately called rasamandapa, the temple or pavilion of mercury.221 The alchemist who inaugurates or reconsecrates such a laboratory be gins by tracing, in red sindura (mercuric oxide, a mineral representation of the Goddess), upon a raised altar in the center of this structure,222 an intri cate mandala upon which all of the alchemical raw materials, processes, etc., of his craft are symbolically represented.223 At the heart of this mandala he establishes a phallic emblem of Siva composed of mercury (rasalinga) in amalgam with either gold or sulfur,224 which he must propitiate daily if he is to hope to meet with success in his practice.225 This linga is set into a semicircular silver chasing (pitha), which may be taken as yet another min eral emblem of the Goddess's sexual organ.226 Also at the heart of this struc ture, the alchemist installs a fire pit or basin (kunda) called the yonicakra that will serve as a support for his ritual propitiation of the tantric god desses of his craft.227 Lastly the alchemist uses his rasalinga as a support for his meditation (dhyana), projecting upon it an image of Siva Rasesvara (or Rasabhairava) in sexual union with the goddess RasabhairavT (or RasarikusI).228 That the union of these divine principles is a creative one is made ex-
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plicit in descriptions of the layout of the laboratory proper: radiating out ward from this divine center, the cardinal directions are identified with a mandala of divinities as well as with the practical "rites of passage" {samskaras) of the alchemist's art. Thus, the eastern wall of the structure is re served for the storage of herbs and other plant matter: in the Hindu organ ization of space, the east is the direction whose regent is Indra, the god renowned for the theft of Soma, divine herb of immortality. To the south east, the direction of Agni, Fire, are located the alchemist's distilling instru ments. To the south, the direction of the dead and Yama, lord of the dead, the alchemist stores his oxidizing, "metal-killing" (lohamara) chemicals. To the southwest, the direction of Nirrti, the dread goddess of disorder, are arranged mortar, pestle, and other grinding and pulverizing instruments. Arrayed along the western wall, the region of Varuna, god of the waters, are the alchemist's liquifying apparatus. To the northwest, the direction of Vayu, Wind, are the bellows of the alchemist's furnace. The north is the quarter of the god Kubera, lord of the Vidyadharas and possessor of fabu lous riches and wealth. Here are located coloring (ranjana) agents, the rea son for this being that half the alchemist's art of aurifaction (or aurifiction, counterfeiting gold) lay in the tinting of base metals with amalgams of gold and mercury.229 Lastly, the northeast, the direction identified with that form of Siva known as Isana, is consecrated to the use of mercury as agent of transmutation {rasavedha). The layout of the alchemist's temple-laboratory not only follows the logic of the Hindu organization of space, consecrating as it does each quar ter of the structure to an activity that corresponds to the regent of that direction; it also follows the serial logic of the alchemical operations, the samskaras, which he effects in transforming "raw" unrefined mercury into a "perfected" agent of transmutation and elixir of immortality. All things Hindu begin in the east, the direction of the sunrise, where the day begins. So too, the enumeration of the quadrants of the laboratory begins with this direction, with the herbs that are the raw materials of the alchemist's work and the lowest elements on the hierarchy of "metals,"2'0 and at that point at which the alchemical "life-cycle rites" begin. Following the east, this orientational arrangement of the laboratory also reproduces the order of the alchemical samskaras, which begin with the distillation, grinding, and killing of mercury and continue with its transformation of other metals through liquification, heating, and coloring, to culminate in their transmu tation. The principal role in this alchemical ordering of space and time is still
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Homologous Stnictitres of the Alchemical Body
played by the alchemist who, holding the center stage—in which he, as a tantric practitioner, identifies himself with Siva in union with the Goddess in the rasalinga located at the center of his laboratory—orchestrates the alchemical samskaras that will have, for their final result, the transubstantiation of the body and being of the alchemist himself. Just as we find a reasoned ordering of time and space in the alchemical mesocosm that is the laboratory, so too do we encounter a wide array of yogic representations of the subtle body, in which that body is projected upon a given mesocosm, or vice versa. A most graphic example of such a projection is the early nineteenth-century Hamsesvari (Our Lady of the Cosmic Goose) temple (Hooghly district, West Bengal), whose six stories, labyrinthine floor plan, and maze of ladders reproduce, in explicit fashion, the nadis and cakras of the subtle body.'" A similar projection, on a far more massive scale, is that of the pithas, the "footstool" pilgrimage sites of the Goddess which, since the earliest Buddhist Tantras, have at once constituted geographic locations on the Indian subcontinent and centers within the subtle body. Thus the four "original" pithas of Buddhism—Kamarupa, Jalandhara, Pumagiri, and Uddiyana—are identified with the four cab-as of the Buddhist subtle body. This number comes to be expanded to 51 (the Sanskrit phonemes) in the KM and the Pithaniitiaya, 68 in Nath sources, 134 in the Satsahasra Samhita, and so on.232 At least five sacred Sakta-Saiva sites—Kamakhya, Srisailam, Hiriglaj Devi, Kedarnath, and Girnar—have alchemical traditions connected to them; to these may be added Siva's Mount Kailash, which is described as an alchemical wonder land in the opening lines of the Rasarnava.2"
galdlp itself is in order, appearing as it does in a great number of Nath Siddha legends. Like Ratansen in the Padmavat, Puran Bhagat (Caurariglnath) is also required to go to this kingdom. However, rather than going to conquer a woman as does Ratansen when he wins PadmavatI, he is sent there by his guru Gorakhnath to test his powers of yogic resistance against the amorous advances of that country's queen, Sundran ("Beautiful").236 Goplcand, sent, in a similar way, to the "south country" by his guru Jalandharnath, falls into the clutches of a sorceress named Hlra ("Diamond"): when he rejects her advances, she transforms him into a ram, and Jalandharnath has to come and rescue him. According to one source, GopTcand's own sister Candravall, prior to deciding to follow in her brother's footsteps and become zyogini, is married the king of Simhala. We therefore appear to be in the presence of a common motif which is, however, in the Gopl cand legends, distributed between the Nath Siddha himself and his sis ter.237 In one version of his legend, Puran Bhagat is said to be the disciple of Matsyendranath whose own Plantain Forest, it will be recalled, was lo cated in one version of bis legend, in Simhala! Matsyendra fares less well than do any of the junior Nath Siddhas of these accounts, but this is likely due to his connections with the YoginI Kaula.23s In every case, we may conclude that this southern island-fortress is a mythic multiform of the Plantain Forest already described above, at once a locus of lethal sensuality and rejuvenating yogic liberation. Here, then, is the allegorical ascent of the fortress of Simhala. In it, we will recognize a great number of land scapes within the subtle body, as have been described throughout this chapter.239
We have noted that the Nine Naths, rather than being historical figures, are in fact symbolizations of various elements of the universal macrocosm —the nine directions, including the zenith or center, and the subtle body (nine of the "ten doors," the principal nadis, etc.).234 This is appropriate inasmuch as there was no medieval sect in India that was as fascinated, even obsessed, with the array of correspondences it discovered between the universal macrocosm and the microcosm of the subtle body. While the Nath Siddhas mapped out these "static" homologies, in all their manysplendored detail, in such works as the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, Gorakh Bodh, and Pran Sankali, 235 nowhere are they presented more dynamically and dramatically than in Muhammad JayasT's Padmavat, in which the storming of the fort of Sirhhala is made into an explicit allegory for trans formations within the hathayogic body. Before we enter into the heart of the matter, a word on Simhala or Saii-
[Siva speaks] "I will tell you of the fortress of Simhala: the ascent is of seven storeys.240 No one who has set his foot on the heavenly way has returned as a living being. The fortress is as bent (bank) as is your body: man, as you may see, is an image of it. It is not to be attained by fighting, through the use of force (bath);24' those who do attain it are those who have attained the marks [of yoga].242 There are nine gates in that fortress and five constables patrol therein. It has a hidden tenth door:243 inaccessible is the ascent to this and the way is exceedingly crooked (banki).2^ Only he who has obtained the secret (bbed) and climbs like an ant can penetrate (bbedi) that pass.24s At the base of the fortress is a deep pool (kund): in the midst of this there is a path, as I declare to you . . . 246 As the diver plunges into the ocean and only then does the pearl come to his
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hand; so he who seeks out the door of heaven will make the ascent of Simhala-dvlpa. The tenth gate is [as narrow and lofty as] the silhouette of a palm tree: he who has reversed his gaze (ulati disitij2*1 can see it. He who advances while restraining (bandt) his breath and his mind . . . can go there .. . 248 Then king [Ratansen] received the siddhi gutika2*' Thereupon he realized the siddhi[s] .. . When Siva gave him the siddhi [gutika], a great clamor arose as the yogins assailed the fortress. All the lotus maidens climbed up (on the roofs) to observe. In laying siege to the Simhala fortress, [it was as if] the yogins had raised a grove of medita tion huts [in its place].2S0 This dramatic depiction of the subtle body plunges us into the dynamics of yogic and alchemical transformation, which are to be the subject of the following chapter.
NINE
The Dynamics of Transformation in Siddha Alchemy
i. The "Work in Two Parts" In an earlier chapter, I showed that the tantric universe was a unified sys tem that oscillated between withdrawal (nivrtti) and return (pravrtti) on the part of a cosmic yogin, between effulgence (prakds'a) and reflection (vimarsa) on the part of supreme consciousness, between emission and resorption, etc. In such a system, the yogic body becomes the stage for the return of the absolute from existence to essence through the descent and ascent of the kundalini. As has been indicated, the absolute emanates into the manifest universe and human bodies as a means to enjoying its bound less potential. The return, however, to unity and wholeness is, for those human manifestations of this emanatory dynamic, anything but natural, requiring as it does a forceful ihatha) reversal (ulatd) of what are, in mortal creatures, irreversible tendencies (entropy, aging, disease, death). Thus, while it is the case that the process of return is, from a divine or absolute perspective, internal to the process of emanation, it is nevertheless an ardu ous task for the individual who would attempt to realize such through his own subtle body.1 So it is that long before the much-glorified stage of yogic or alchemical reintegration, in which an emanated or differentiated mani fest world implodes on itself, into a single essence—a drop, vibration, pho neme, wave, photon, quantum, etc.—a great deal of unglorious prepara tory work must be carried out. That work is the subject of this chapter. The human techniques for reversing the natural tendency (in an ema nated universe) towards greater differentiation or entropy and for realizing for oneself the primordial unity of the absolute—with its concommitant bliss (bhoga), supernatural powers (siddhis), and bodily liberation (jivanmukti)—are the stuff of hatha yoga. However, as the texts themselves tell us time and again, the human microcosm is intimately entwined with the alchemical and hathayogic mesocosm, with the latter two at once constitut26j
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ing parallel and interpenetrating systems. Whence the classic statements of the RA: "As in metal, so in the body. . . . By means of the Work, a stable body is attained. Mercury and breath [control] are known as the Work in two parts (karmayogo dvidha)"2 This statement is echoed in Gorakhnath's Amaraugha Prabodha (v. 5), which describes the twofold rajayoga as botani cal and spiritual and the twofold hatha yoga as the "practice of breath and seed."' The quest of the alchemist and that of the yogin are one and the same. This is the credo of Siddha alchemy. Not only the ends, but also the means these two interpenetrating sys tems employ for the realization of their final goal are also strikingly homol ogous. In the last two chapters, I showed the content and structure of the two systems to be parallel and interpenetrating; in the present chapter, I turn to their common dynamic. Stated in their simplest terms, hathayogic and alchemical techniques for immortality, termed sadhanas ("realiza tions") and saniskaras ("perfectionings") respectively, comprise four phases: purification, immobilization, reversal, and transformation. Quite often, the language employed to describe these sequential techniques is identical in the two systems; and even when such is not the case, structural homologies abound, with references to digestion, consciousness-raising, flux, phase changes (from the virtual to the actual), and a vertical dynamic per vasive in both systems. These sequences further constitute models of or for a number of sacrificial, medical, and tantric practices and techniques, which I also outline here. Samskara is a Sanskrit term that has come to cover an extremely wide semantic field in India. Derived from the same prefix 4- root (sam[s]-k?;) as is the word Sanskrit itself, its literal sense is to "per-fect," to render whole or complete; more technical definitions include the "production of new qualities" and "that which makes a person or thing fit for a given func tion."4 It is in this latter sense that the term samskara plays a pivotal role in Hindu alchemy. The sainskaras are those operations that render mercury fit for transformation, for the production of new qualities in the mineral world. From another perspective, the alchemical samskaras may be seen as the exalted "rites of passage" of those humans who, applying the element mercury—first "generated" in the form of the "raw" semen of the god Siva—to metals and thence to their own bodies, transform themselves into equals of the gods (who, out of jealousy, asked Siva to adulterate mercury with impurities). As in the case of the human rites of passage, the principal aim of the alchemical samskaras is to purify a (mercurial) body that has been tainted through the process of birth, of coming into existence. Here
it is significant that suta, "that which was generated," is one of the five standard alchemical terms for mercury, Siva's seed, which lodged itself in the womb of the goddess earth, at the conclusion of the origin myth of mercury.5 In alchemy, as in other spheres of Hindu culture, the number attached to the samskaras is eighteen, or more properly speaking, sixteen plus two.6 The first sixteen samskaras prepare mercury and other elements for trans mutation, while the final two are the issue of all that has preceded: these are the transmutation of base metals into gold (called vedha, "penetration") and transubstantiation, the generation of an immortal body, called s'arirayoga ("body Work"), bhaksana ("eating"), dehavedha ("penetration of the body"), or simply sevana ("use").7 In yoga in general, and hatha yoga in particular, the sadhanas ("realiza tions") are so many homologues of the alchemical sainskaras. As outlined in the introductory chapter, the term sddhana is derived, like siddhi ("real ization," "supernatural power") and siddha ("realized individual," "super man") from the verb sadh, to "realize, accomplish, perfect." At least one hathayogic source" lists seven sadhanas together with their results. These are purification {sodhana) through the six practices (satkarrnani); solidity (drdhata) through the postures (asanas); immobility (sthaiiyd) through the yogic seals (mudras); composure {dhairya) through the retraction of the senses {pratyahara); lightness (laghava) through breath control {pranaydma); direct perception (pi-atyaksa) through meditation (dhyana); and immaculateness (nirlipta) and release (mukti) through total yogic integration (samadhi).
2. The Alchemical Samskaras If we are to demonstrate a more explicit connection between the alchemi cal samskaras and the hathayogic sadhanas, we must go beyond these gen eral observations and undertake a point-for-point comparison of the graded practices that define the two disciplines. We begin our comparison here with a summary of the alchemical samskaras, in which the sixteen stan dard samskaras are listed with Arabic numerals, supplementary operations with roman numerals, and the effects of such operations with roman let ters. Following this summary, the balance of this chapter will consist of a commentary in which a series of yogic (and, where applicable, sacrificial, medical, and tantric) practices will be juxtaposed with homologous al-
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chemical operations—by which it will be shown that Siddha alchemy did in fact constitute a "Work in two parts." 1. Sodhana is the "(preliminary) purification" of mercury, its physical cleansing through washing, melting, marinating, and roasting it in vari ous preparations.9 II. Ksetrikarana, "making (oneself master of) the field," is the purifi cation of the human body, through special diets, emetics, etc., such that it becomes capable of absorbing mercurial preparations. Although the ingestion of such preparations constitutes the eighteenth and final samskara, the preparation of the body, analogous in certain ways to the preliminary puri fication of mercury, must be undertaken well in advance of its ingestion. It is for this reason that I introduce it here. i. Svedana is the "sweating," "steaming," or "fomentation" of mercury in a water bath together with plant and mineral substances. This is the first samskara, i.e., the first step in the chemical transformation of unrefined mercury into an agent of transmutation. As such, it differs from sodhana, in which the mercury ore is first cleansed physically or mechanically, rather than purified chemically.10 2. Mardana is the "rubbing," "grinding," or "trituration" of steamed mercury in a mortar, together with plant and acidic substances. 3. Murcchana is the "fainting" or "swooning" of mercury, by which it is ground in a mortar together with vegetable matter, until it loses its natu ral characteristics (luster, density, volatility, etc.) and form and becomes purged of certain naturally occurring toxins, impurities, and defects." This is to be distinguished from another process of the same name. III. Murcchana as a supplementary operation takes mercury that has al ready been processed, either through the first eight samskaras or by other means, and combines it with sulfur to produce a number of medical prepa rations for Ayurvedic rasayana or vajikarana therapy.'- For reasons that will be made clear later in this chapter, we pass directly from our discussion of "swooning" to that of two other vital transformations of mercury, known as "binding" and "killing." a. As a result of the process of swooning, mercury becomes "swooned," murcchita. b. Bandhana is the "binding" or "fixation" of mercury, which, like swooning, leaves mercury stable and thereby manipulable, in a state in which it is not subject to evaporation, even when heated over fire. Left unbound, mercury remains volatile whenever it is exposed to heat or sun light. Once purified, it can be "fixed" via any one of the twenty-five or
twenty-six alchemical bandhas. Each of these bandhas has a specific medi cal application." c. Marana, the "killing" of mercury (or any metal) reduces it to a fine ash or oxide (bhasma), such that the human body is able to absorb it when it is taken in medical preparations. Metals other than mercury are generally killed, in preparation for internal use, by heating them together with iron pyrites and mercuric sulfide. When mercury is killed, it loses its fluidity, density, luster, and brilliance. Tantric alchemy attributes fantastic powers of transmutation to said mercury, which it identifies as "killed ash" (m?tabhasma) or "killed mercury" (mrtasutaka).H 4. Utthapana is the "resurrection" of swooned mercury, effected by steaming it with alkalis, salts, and plant matter and by rubbing it in the open air. Through "resurrection," mercury recovers the brilliance, etc. it had lost through murcchana. 5. Patana, the "sublimation" or "distillation" of mercury refers to the three processes by which mercury is distilled upwards, downwards, or transversally.'5 6. Bodhana, "awakening," or rodhana, "countering, coagulation," are al ternative terms for the sixth samskara, by which mercury, which has be come purged of its toxic content but also its strength through the preced ing operations, has its "virility" (virya) restored to it through irrigation in a salt bath. This operation gives mercury a "mouth" (mukha) with which to absorb other elements in the samskaras that follow.16 7. Niyamana, "regulation" or "restraint," reduces the motility of mer cury (which it has recovered through the previous samskara), raising its temperature of evaporation and rendering it lustrous in appearance. This is done by soaking mercury in a bath of alkaline and herbal substances and then steaming it.17 8. Dipana, "kindling" or "enflaming," further enhances mercury's po tency and luster through steaming in an alkaline bath. This operation is said to kindle mercury's desire to "consume" other metals.18 d. Taken as a group, the first eight samskaras serve to purify and detoxify mercury such that it may be used internally in the treatment of diseases.19 It is here, however, that the great divide—between the medical use of mer curials (rogavada) and the use of the same for the ends of transmutational (lohavada) and elixir alchemy (dehavada)—is drawn. The realization of these higher, tantric aims requires eight additional saniskaras, by means of which mercury truly begins to behave like a living being, hungering after metals to consume, penetrate, and thereby transmute. The transubstantia-
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tion of the alchemist's own body, similarly penetrated by mercury, then follows automatically. Of the remaining samskaras, (9) [gagana]grdsa, (10) carana, (11) gar-
bhadruti, and (12) bahyadruti are but phases in a single continuous process, which culminates in (i^) jarana, "digestion" or "assimilation." These begin with the measuring out (mana) of a given quantity (a "seed," consisting of the calcinated ash, or the "essence," sattva) of mica or a metal for its consumption (grasa) by mercury. This is followed by the "chewing" (carana, literally "coursing") of the mica or metal by said mercury, followed by either its internal (to the mass of mercury) or external processing and liquification (garbha-druti and bahya-druti, respectively),21 with the end re sult being in that metal's total digestion or assimilation (jarana) into the mercury. IV. Because it issues from a series of operations, jarana may be viewed as the culmination of these alchemical sa?fiskdras as much as an operation in itself. From this point onwards, it becomes quite artificial to distinguish mercury from the metals to be transmuted. Once mercury has digested a given metal, that metal no longer exists per se; rather, it is alchemically activated mercury itself that will become transmuted into silver or gold." 14. Ranjana, "tinting" or "coloration," involves the heating of mercury with "seeds" of gold, silver, copper, sulfur, mica, and salt, such that mer cury takes on the natural colors of the minerals it has absorbed or swal lowed.-'3 15. Sarana (literally, "flowing"), the "potentialization" of mercury in preparation for transmutation, is effected by heating it in oil into which molten "seeds" of metals, diamond, etc. are poured.-M 16. In kramana ("taking hold, "progression"), mercury is smeared with a mineral and herbal paste and heated in a puta such that it becomes ca pable, as a transmuting agent, of penetrating both metals and bodily tissues.-'5 V. The final two samskaras, (17) vedha ("transmutation") and (18) s'arirayoga ("transubstantiation"), together constitute the final end of the alche mist's work. As such, they are as much the issue of the sixteen prior samskaras as alchemical operations in themselves. With these operations, mercury truly confounds itself with the metallic or flesh-and-blood "bodies" in question, ultimately replacing them with a mercurial or alchemical body. If life is, as the Buddha said, to be regarded as a disease or a wound, then it is appropriate to liken mercury to a healing virus (from vir, the Indo-European root denoting masculinity—as in semen
virile and, by extension, virility) which takes over the body into which it enters, transforming human tissue into alchemical diamond or gold—gold which, in the immortal words of the Brahmanas, "is immortality."''' In the following chapter, I provide further discussion of these final samskaras.
3. Purification It is in the ancient sacrificial tradition that we find the earliest statements concerning the alternation between manifestation and nonmanifestation on the part of the absolute. This is described in terms of an alternation of divine generations and of the transformative, even reanimating proper ties of fire. The primordial creator (Purusa-Prajapati), having poured him self—indeed, poured his rasa—into the manifest world, lies broken and dying. He can be restored to his prior unmanifest wholeness only through the intervention of his son, Agni, who is the sacrificial fire. By piling a fire altar (agnicayana) Agni reconstitutes the body of his father and thereby becomes known as "his father's father." It is through this alternation of generations that it is possible for the divine to be at once one and many, transcendent and manifest; and it is only through the offering, on the part of a human sacrificer, of a major sacrifice that this alternation, this resur rection of the father, can be effected. Indeed, it is in this very same sacri ficial context that one finds the earliest use of the verb samskr, to refer the restoration to original wholeness of a god whose body has been identified with what Jan Heesterman has termed the "broken world of sacrifice."'7 Whenever such a sacrifice was to be offered in ancient India, the piece of ground upon which that sacrifice was to take place had to be prepared long in advance of the actual ritual offering. Preparation essentially in volved sealing off a theretofore mundane parcel of land through a series of purificatory acts. Here, purification involved plowing and cultivating the land, allowing it to lie fallow, and finally covering it with a layer of sand, which symbolized the semen of the "emptied" Prajapati. The language here was sexual: the raised altar was the womb (yoni) upon which the semen (retas) of Prajapati was spread, thus filling the void that was left when Prajapati's body had first become dispersed.'8 Only after the sacrificial ground had been renewed in this way could it serve as the mesocosm for a sacralization of cosmos, society, and the sacrificer, through the offering of the sacrifice itself. It was not sufficient, however, that the sacrificial ground alone be puri-
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fied in preparation for the sacrifice. A similar sort of preparation had also to be effected upon the person of the sacrificer, the human pivot of the ritual act. Here, it was necessary that the human sacrificer, no doubt in imitation of the primal sacrificer, Purusa-Prajapati, renew his body in order that it be rendered fit to perform the sacrificial act.-9 This act of preparing the sacrificer's body, of transforming it from a mundane human body into a body worthy of communing with the divine through sacrifice, is diksa (literally "habitation"), a term generally translated as "initiation." Here, the mechanics of initiation entail the same dynamic as the preparation of the sacrificial ground: the purification of a mundane body transforms it into a sacrificial body. As with the preparation of the sacrificial ground, the preparation of the sacrificer himself is described in terms of sexual repro duction and animal gestation. Sequestered within the initiation hut, the sacrificer, "cooked" through the inner heat of his austerities (tapas) and the external heat of burning fires placed in the hut, symbolically sheds his mundane body. An embryo of his "new" sacrificial body takes form, incu bates, and is born out of the "womb" of the hut, three days later.30 The symbolism of this homologous preparation through purification, of both sacrificial ground and sacrificial body, is directly appropriated by the three elements of Siddha practice: hathayoga, alchemy, and tantric rit ual. This first groundbreaking phase is called ksetrlkarana, "mastering, pre paring the field" in the first two systems, and bhutahiddhi, "purification of the elements" in the third. This metaphor of the tilled field is altogether natural within an agrarian society and is not original to these three tradi tions. Classical Sarhkhya calls the body-mind complex the field (ksetra) and the soul the farmer (ksetrajiia, literally, "knower of the field") who tends said field without himself being affected by it.31 In Hinayana Buddhism, the notion of the transfer of merit is explained through the image of the assembled saints, who constitute an excellent field (khettupama) in which meritorious acts may be sown and thereafter bear fruit for the benefit of others.' 2 It is in the medical tradition that the theories and techniques pertaining to the preparation of the body as field are most fully developed. In its re juvenation therapy, the term ksetrlkarana refers to the preparation of the body for the medicines that will be absorbed in the treatment per se.55 This class of treatments—called samsodhana cikitsa, "purificatory medicine" or pancakarmani, "the five treatments"—combines such clinical treatments as emetics, purgatives, sudation, etc. as means to purifying the body by void ing it of the elements responsible for its humoral imbalance.34 At the end
The Dynamics of Transformation
of these five sequences—each a fortnight in duration and interspersed with five-day rest periods—the rejuvenation therapy proper may begin. Interfacing as it did with the therapeutic alchemy of Ayurveda, tantric alchemy makes a nearly identical use of the term ksetrlkarana, with its place in the order of operations homologous to that found in Ayurveda. Simulta neous to his preparation of the mercury he will eventually ingest, the alche mist must also prime his body, in order that it be capable of absorbing that potent elixir. Here, ksetrlkarana means observing, over a fifteen-day pe riod, a strict purificatory diet which effects, through the same five treat ments as those employed in rejuvenation therapy, the evacuation of every bodily impurity with which the mercury might abreact." As a result of this operation, the body becomes a field in which a mercurial seed (rasa-blja), when ingested, will germinate. The fruit this seed will produce is an im mortal, alchemical body. While apparently agricultural, the language here, too, is sexual. The first three samskaras of the human rites of passage, which effect the purification of the womb, are called the "perfectionings of the field," the ksetra-samskdras, by which the female womb is prepared to re ceive the seed (blja) that is male semen.56 Here, the planting of a mercurial seed in the body also reminds us of tantric initiation (diksa), which may be performed either with or without "seed" (sablja or nirblja).11 As the MBhT describes it, the "seed" is the con densed mantra—identified with the semen of Siva, who is himself identi fied with the guru here—that the guru plants in the initiate's body. Indeed, no mantra can be effective without a "seed," and no tantric deity exists independent of his or her seed mantra (blja).™ Like Prajapati and Agni in Vedic sacrifice, the relationship between the guru who plants the seed and the disciple in whose body he plants it is one of an alternation of genera tions. So too, the alchemist whose corporeal field has been properly pre pared gives birth to a new, immortal self, out of the old, through the mer curial seed he has planted there.59 Even if the body so produced is most often called a golden, adamantine, or realized body (svarna-deba, vajradeha, siddha-deha), it is in fact a mercurial body, an alchemical body. Like the Ayurvedic physician and the alchemist, the hatha yogin must also effect a preliminary cleansing (sodbana) of his body. This he does through a series of operations known as bhutasuddhi, the "purification of the elements," or the satkarmani, the "six practices," in which the inner contours of his body are purified with air, water, and fire.40 Like the five treatments of Ayurveda, the majority of these practices ranging from nose wash (neti) to enema (vasti), flush out the body's physical impurities.41 Such
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practices, which cleanse the channels of the subtle body, channels through which the five vital breaths must freely circulate, are already anticipated in the preparation of the fire altar mentioned above: the furrows plowed into the site create the channels through which the vital airs circulate in the body of Prajapati, the sacrifical Man.42 Given the task he has set himself— to reintegrate bodily microcosm with divine macrocosm—these prelimi naries are vital to the yogin's success in all that follows. From the outset, the intrinsically gross human body cannot be charged with the slightest impurity as such would, like a speck of dust on a mirror, skew the perfect interface, reflection, and realization of one world in another.4' The term bhutasuddhi has a much more extended application in the realm of tantrism, where it also forms an important element of worship and initiation." In tantric ritual, bhutasuddhi refers to the preliminary puri fication of the divinities residing in each of the five elements (bhutas) that make up the body.4' I Iere, bhutasuddhi is the purification of both a mesocosmic worship site—once again referred to as a "field," ksetra—and the microcosmic body of the worshipper himself (when the two are not iden tified),46 a situation that mirrors that of the twofold Vedic preparation of sacrificial ground and the sacrificer's person. Both are dessicated, "blown out," and burned up before being cleansed with water and flooded with "nectar," processes which, identified with the dissolution of the mundane self, constitute the first step towards the creation of a new divinized self. I Iere, the lower elements of earth, water, fire, and air, are successively im ploded into their higher emanates, until there only remains the most sub lime element on the pentadic hierarchy. This is ether, the empty space left by this dissolution, within which the tantric practitioner will establish, through visualization techniques and the planting of seed mantras, a new world at the center of which he will construct the body of that divinity with whom he will come to identify himself.47 The tantric worshipper or initiate who has transformed his own being through these processes becomes capable, in turn, of transforming other beings, indeed, the entire universe, through his limitless powers. Such is also the case with mercury in the alchemical context. In its mundane form, as it is found in ores and its various compound forms, mercury is incapable of transforming other mineral substances in any way whatsoever and is capable only of poisoning the foolish alchemist who would attempt to in gest it. Like the bodies of the Ayurvedic patient, hatha yogin, and tantric practitioner, and like the sites upon which Vedic and tantric rituals are
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carried out, the element mercury must be primed, purified, and conse crated before further operations may be undertaken. It is in this context that the term employed for the alchemical trans formations, samskara, takes on its greatest fullness of meaning: "Samskara: those acts and rites that impart fitness. Fitness is of two kinds. It arises from the removal of taints or by the generation of fresh qualities."411 Of the classic enumeration of the eighteen alchemical samskaras, the first eight concern nothing more or less than the preliminary prepara tion of the element mercury for its eventual application to other minerals. Of these, the first two—svedana and mardana, "sweating" and "rubbing"— deal most directly with mercury's physical or mechanical purification.4'' The "sweating" of mercury immediately reminds us of the initiation of the Vedic sacrificer and the kuti-praves'a treatment of Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy. It is by sweating off', purging oneself of one's old body that it be comes possible to take on a new one. The same is the case in hatha yoga. It is only after his effecting of the "six acts" that the practitioner begins to truly transform his body—by sweating, which is viewed as the first stage in the process of yogic transformation. Here, he induces perspiration through a number of techniques of breath control (prandydma), techniques which culminate in diaphragmatic retention {kumbhaka). The sweat that is voided through the pores (literally, "hair wells," roma-kupa) has in fact been forced out through the seventy-two thousand nddis, thereby purging them of all impurity.50 The parallel with the alchemical samskdras appears to be deliberate here, since immediately following this, the yogin is instructed to rub (mardana) his body with the perspiration that has been so produced. The combination of these two processes renders the body—not unlike mercury at the con clusion of the first two alchemical samskdras—firm and light.5'
4. Immobilization: Murcchana, Bandhana, and Marana The second verse of Patanjali's Yogasutras defines yoga as "preventing thought from going around in circles." One may indeed consider the entire history of yogic theory and practice to be a footnote on this formula.5-' Reduced to its simplest terms, yoga ("yoking") is concerned with impeding movement, with the immobilization of all that is mobile within the body. This is a point that the HYP makes clear in its opening chapter: "The pos-
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tures, the various [methods of breath control leading to] kumbhaka[s], the practices called mudra, then the practices concentrating on [hearing] the nada: this is the sequence [to be observed] in hatha \yoga\T^ One first im mobilizes the body through the postures; next, one immobilizes the breaths through diaphragmatic retention; one then immobilizes the seed through the "seals"; and finally one immobilizes the mind through concentration on the subtle inner reverberation of the phonemes. The theory here is simple: stop this, that stops. But the practice is any thing but simple as anyone who has attempted to maintain a yogic posture, sit still, or simply stop thinking for any length of time knows all too well. What a difficult, even heroic undertaking the immobilization of the body constitutes, yet what fantastic results it yields! For immobilization leads to reversal, reversal to transformation, and transformation is tantamount to bodily immortality and, precisely, to the supernatural ability to transform, reverse, or immobilize whatever one desires in the physical world (siddhi). Immobilization or stabilization, in the form of swooning, binding (or fix ation), and killing, constitute the "hump" that the Siddha alchemist must get over in order for his goals to be realized. All that follows does so more or less automatically, as if a critical mass has been reached and a chain reaction triggered—whence the most frequently recurring passage, in the entire alchemical tradition. A single summary passage, concerning the matters of immobilization, stability, death, resurrection, and the power of flight, appears, in nearly identical form, in all of the alchemical classics—the Rasarnava, Rasahrdaya Tantra, Rasendra Mangala, Bhutiprakarana, Rasendracuddmani, and Rasaratnasamucchaya.™ More remarkable is the fact that this exact same verse, at least in the form in which it is found in the RA, also occurs in the fifteenthcentury HYP of Svatmarama. In this latter case, however, Svatmarama is able to employ "alchemical" terminology to make a yogic point. That is, the same verse may be read on two different registers, the one alchemi cal and the other yogic. In the context of the "Work in two parts" and the vital matter of immobilization, however, the two perspectives ultimately become fused into one. The verse in question reads, in the RA and the HYP, as follows: "Swooned, rasa, like the breath, drives away diseases, killed it revives itself, bound it affords the power of flight."55 In the alchemical RA, the term rasa refers to swooned, bound, and killed mercury, the ingestion of which, in tandem with the practice of breath control, renders the practitioner healthy, immortal, and possessed of the power of flight. The hathayogic
HYP promises the same results, but takes rasa to mean semen, the immobi lization and retention of which are paramount to the hathayogic discipline, as witnessed in a poem attributed to Goplcand:56 "Steady goes the breath, and the mind is steady, steady goes the mind, the semen. Steady the semen, and the body is steady, that's what GopTcand is sayin'." A number of other references further elaborate on the interchangeability of mind, breath, and rasa in the techniques evoked in the hathayogic and alchemical sources. The HYP equates the immobilized mind with bound or fixed mercury and states that the former results in the immobilization of both breath and body and thereby bodily immortality. In like fashion, the RA emphasizes the necessity of unwavering mental concentration for suc cess in the performance of alchemical operations.57 Gorakhnath, with the directness we have come to expect of his poetry of yogic experience, states the matter clearly and succinctly: "Penis in the vulva's mouth, mercury in the mouth of fire; he who can retain these [semen and mercury], him I call my guru."5!t Here, it is the same image, of immobilized rasa—that is at once cal cinated mercury and semen—that comes to be employed, in a wide array of applications, to describe the parallel yet interpenetrating processes of Siddha alchemy. Although swooning is the sole member of the triad—of murcchana, bandhana, and marana—to actually constitute an alchemical samskara per se (the latter two being the effects of a number of combined operations), all three are nevertheless central to the alchemist's craft. Ac cording to a list provided in the RA, all seven of the standard forms of alchemical mercury produced through the samskaras are either swooned (murcchita), bound {baddha), or killed (wrta).59 We now turn to a closer examination of this triad, within the Work in two parts. a. Murcchana It will be recalled that alchemical samskara known as "swooning," following directly upon the "sweating" and "rubbing" of mercury, causes the liquid metal to lose its luster, lightness, volatility, etc., which are immediately re stored to it in the course of a fourth operation, called "resurrection." Re calling the intimate connection between immobilizing the mind, breath, and rasa in the Work in two parts, we should expect to find hathayogic murcchana playing an analogous role. Hathayogic "swooning" is in fact a direct result of' kumbhaka, of "potlike" diaphragmatic breath retention, the methods for the realization of which it is now time to describe.
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The yogin first draws the subtle breath (prana) in through the left nostril and thereby into the lunar channel. Having retained it for as long as pos sible in the abdomen, he exhales it, via the solar channel and through the right nostril. He then inhales through the right nostril, retains the breath in the abdomen as before, and releases it, via the lunar channel, out the left nostril. By continuing this process, pumping the outer nddls "like a blacksmith's bellows," the yogin's diaphragm will, at a certain point, remain filled with air, the pressure of which will force open the orifice (known as the "door of brahman," the brahmadvara) of the medial channel.60 The subsequent inrush of air into the medial channel causes the two peripheral channels to empty. Deflated in this way, they are called "swooned" (jnurcchd), and indeed, one of the eight types of' kumbhaka is itself called murccha, "because it causes the [normally volatile] mind to swoon," i.e., to become one-pointed in its concentration.61 It is not the swooning of the two peripheral channels that itself "drives away diseases," as HYP 4.27 states. It is rather the effect of their empty ing—i.e., the opening and filling of the medial channel—that is essential, as this becomes the path by which the kundalim surges upwards, carrying with her the life force, seed, and "swooned" mind into the cranial vault. Just as the swooning of mercury is, in the alchemical context, a necessary intermediate step to the transformation of metals and the human body, so too in hatha yoga, swooning affords the practitioner mastery over disease and death. The parallel is explained in these very terms by Brahmananda, in his commentary to this verse: "Through the use of certain herbs, mer cury, which is inclined to be volatile, becomes swooned (murcchita) in the same way that the breath becomes swooned in the culmination of kumbhaka, when one has exhaled and stopped inhaling.""
b. Bandhana
The hathayogic texts recommend a combination of postures, together with a number of respiratory and "hydraulic" techniques, for the immobili zation of the breaths and the diaphragmatic retention that trigger the rise of the kundalim and all that follows. This body of hydraulic techniques is generally subdivided into "hermetic seals" (mudrds such as the vajroll and khecart) and contractions or "locks" (bandhas). These sources describe three principal locks which, effected at the levels of the abdomen, thorax, and head, work hydraulically to effect internal changes in pressure, such that breath and seed become immobilized or begin to be drawn upward. These
are the: (1) miila bandha, ("root lock"), an inner contraction of the anus which draws the downward-tending apdna breath upward through the me dial channel; (2) uddiydna bandha ("the lock of the upward-flying [bird]"), a contraction of the abdomen which, by emptying the lungs, drives them and the diaphragm up into the upper thorax and causes the prana to "fly up" through the medial channel into the cranial vault;63 and (3) jdlamdhara bandha ("the lock of the net bearer"), a contraction of the throat by means of which the yogin seals off his head from his torso and constricts the net work (Jala) of subtle channels and supports, thereby arresting the down ward flow of nectar that has accumulated in the cranial vault.64 The con joined aim of the three bandhas is to gradually restrict the field in which the volatile breath, seed, and mind may move. First forcing them up out of the abdomen, they "lock" them into the torso; they next "contract" them inside the neck and head; and lastly, they "bind" them there. The alchemical parallel to these hathayogic techniques is introduced by a verse from the HYP: "Instability is a natural characteristic of mercury and of the mind. When mercury is bound, when the mind is bound, who in this world does not become realized (siddhyati)?"6$ In alchemy per se, there are twenty-six bandhas which effect the binding (bandhana), fixation, or immobilization of mercury by altering its physical and chemical compo sition and behavior. Through the bandhas, mercury takes on the consis tency of a gel, paste, or solid powder, in which states both its temperature of evaporation and its powers as a transmuting agent are augmented. Yok ing the alchemical discipline to that of hatha yoga is an evocative descrip tion of a general principle for the fixation of mercury: "In the midst of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers there is a raksasa named Application (prayoga). In his presence mercury is immediately bound." I Iere, Ganges and Yamuna stand for the bright and dark lunar fortnights, respectively, mediated by the full moon night. The nocturnal "application" in question consists of culling a number of powerful herbs which, on the full moon night, stabilize mercury/'6 Here again, we are reminded of the Work in two parts, as well as of the yogic immobilization of the breaths in the lunar and solar (Ganges and Yamuna) channels, which fill out the subtle moon located in the cra nial vault. The same cranial vault is the locus for another sort of bonding of yogic and alchemical method. Here we are referring to the technique known as gutika bandha, in which the yogin fixes a mercurial pill {gutika) in a recess of the palate as a means to catalyzing the effects of his yogic practices. This technique will be described at greater length in the next chapter.67
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Apart from these specialized contexts, both the yogic and alchemical traditions employ metaphorical images of binding or snaring to describe the rigors of their respective and complementary tasks. So, for example, the RA (2.90) praises the mantra called rasankusa, the "elephant goad," in the following terms. "One who attempts to obtain mercury without knowl edge of the elephant goad [mantra] is like one who attempts to mount an enraged elephant in the jungle without a goad. He is beset [with tribula tions]." Similarly, in one of his bants, Gorakhnath states that by immobiliz ing the breaths, one may bind (bandhilai) the elephant of the mind and bring it into its pen/'8 As we have already seen, the fixing of mercury is also referred to as the clipping of its wings (paksaccheda), by which it is pre vented from volatizing and "flying upwards" (evaporating). Similarly, in yogic practice, it is crucial that the "cosmic goose" (hamsa) of the breaths and vital energy be tethered so as not to leave the body.6'' In India, all of these images—of binding, ensnaring, tethering, and the like—are as old as sympathetic magic and sorcery itself. As far back as the Rg Veda, we meet gods like Indra who, through the use of magical, invisible cords, defeat their demonic enemies in battle. Indra's greatest victory is won when he "envelops the enveloper," the archdemon Vrtra (the "Enveloper"), who has trapped the world in his coils of drought and darkness. Once the binder has been bound, the entire universe is set free, released from its bondage.70 Indra's feat is reproduced, with variations, by Gorakh nath, who, according to a relatively late Nepali myth, binds nine "serpent clouds." This provokes a drought which only ends when his guru Matsyendranath comes to Nepal from Assam, and Gorakh rises to salute him.71 In the case of the Vedic and post-Vedic Indra, this god seemingly saves the world in order to ensnare it in his own magical web, for Indra's net of magic (indrajala) is also a veil of maya for those lacking the insight to dis cern, behind a world of appearances, what is really real. All of the gods, in fact, impose their maya upon the world, if only to differentiate themselves from humans who, were they to penetrate the ultimate reality behind the phenomenal worlds, might otherwise stop offering them sacrifices. In more philosophical terms, the chief cause of [the individual soul's] bondage in the objective world is . . . Maya, usually considered to be an aspect of the God(dess)'s eternal Sakti. It finds itself. . . in the traditional series of cate gories. The Maya is that power by which the Supreme Being veils itself, so that the jiva [the individual soul], enveloped by ignorance
about its true cosmic nature, falls into the state of an individual sub ject with limited knowledge. This means that the nature of Maya is twofold: limitative and dispersive.72 Ropes and knots; binding, loosing, and cutting; it is in these terms that India has perennially portrayed the conundrum of existence. Creatures (pastis) are bound to a phenomenal world that is a tightly stitched net of magic or a veil of maya; and when this life ends, it is the noose (pds'a) carried by Death himself that ensnares them. In such a world of bondage, what term could better describe liberation and salvation than moksa—which precisely means the loosing or releasing of the knots and webs and snares that fetter all of creation?7' Maya need not, however, be viewed as a net of illusion spread to obscure the numinous absolute. It can also be seen as the self-actualization of the divine creative impulse, as the "measuring out" (ma) or manifestation of pure consciousness, which is free to bind itself if it so chooses. In this, the tantric perspective, the phenomenal world, rather than being a straitjacket to the soul, becomes a field of play for the realized (siddha) individual. By extension, it is no longer moksa or release from conditioned existence that is the Siddha's goal, but rather liberation in the body (jivanmukti), in which the individual experiences the world, for himself, in the same way as does the divine absolute.74 Once one enters into the universe of the Siddhas, the veil of maya becomes as if turned in on itself. How does one escape the trammels of existence? By binding the bondsman, cutting the cords, burn ing the burner—and even consuming Death, the great Eater. Once bound, normally volatile mercury and breath afford normally earthbound humans the power of flight. The medial channel, when opened, becomes "the eater of Death," and the upward surge of energy that courses through it cuts through the three knots (called granthis) which are the sole remaining ob stacles to the yogin's immortality and freedom.75 When the flighty gazelle of the mind is at last snared in net of the unstruck sound, individual con sciousness becomes dissolved in the pure universal consciousness of the divine. 76
The Siddha not only transcends the laws of nature, he also breaks out of the bonds of the human condition: "the yogin is unbindable (abadhya) by any incarnate creature. He can neither be bound by [the noose of] Death, nor by karma." "The great binding (mahabandha) [affords] release (vimocana) from the noose of death (kalapasa)?71 Like the god Indra of yore, the yogin or alchemist binds in order to be released from bondage; now,
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however, rather than doing battle with enemies from without, he is able to domesticate Death, time, illusion—nay, human finitude—without ever having to leave the inner landscape of his subtle body. Herein lies the critical importance of the yogic and alchemical bandhas: they bind the mechanism of bondage itself, hobbling, binding with its own noose a Time (Kala) which is identified with death (kala) before actually turning it back on itself. None of the trammels of existence can fetter the Siddha at play in the world, least of all the ultimate sorrow, the sorrow of death. For whenever Death tries to catch a Siddha in his noose, the latter either slips away, thus cheating Death ("skewing time": kalavancana)7* or actually beats him up. This is a theme found in the legend of Goplcand, in which Hadipa (Jalandharanath), upon learning that his young disciple has been taken by Yama's minions to the world of the dead, thrashes them and their master so thoroughly that they promise to never meddle with the Nath Siddhas again.79 Mayana, GopTcand's sorceress mother, following her initiation by Gorakhnath, holds similar powers over Yama: "If she should die in the day-time, he [Gorakh] would not let the sun go, but would bind him down,—if she should die at home, he would not let Yama go, but bind him down,—if she should die of a cut from a flat sword (kha'a = a large sacrificial knife), he would bind the goddess Candl [who bears such a weapon] down—Mayana would [out-]survive even the sun and the
tion; the mudras are great hoop earrings which, placed in the thick of the ears at initiation, open a subtle channel vital to yogic practice; and the kantha is the patchwork tunic traditionally worn by the Nath Siddhas.84
moon."80 In a later episode of the same legend cycle, Goplcand has Hadipa bound in chains and buried beneath a stable (or at the bottom of a well), under several feet of horse manure. These Hadipa tears away by means of a single mantra. The chain on his hand becomes transformed into a rosary of beads; the heavy stone placed upon his chest becomes his yogic garb; and the rope with which he was bound becomes his loincloth."' The regalia and sectarian markings worn by the Nath Siddhas are, in fact, all explicitly symbolic of those various elements of their yogic practice which afford them their fabled mastery over the processes of aging and death. As such, they constitute a mesocosm, a model of and for the micro cosm of the subtle body and the macrocosm of the universe. In the words of Bhartrhari, "the form of the Jog [yoga] is the ear-ring, the patched quilt, the wallet, the staff and the horn, the sound of which is emitted in the Universe.""-1 Here, the horn is the singndd, a piece of gazelle horn into which the Nath Siddhas blow to produce the nada, the silent sound that serves to bind and control the wavering mind.85 In the legend of Hadipa, the japamala is a rosary of rudraksa beads used as an aid in mantric recita-
c. Marana Since at least the time of the epics, the final of the four idealized stages of life observed by males in India has been termed sannyasa, because it is marked by the act of "laying together" the sacrificial fires that had defined one's social existence. Abandoning one's sacrificial fires is tantamount to abandoning the world: henceforth, although one remains in the world, one is no longer a part of it. Of vital importance to the yogic tradition is the fact that the sacrificial fires in question are gathered together within one's body. There, they serve both as a cremation pyre—by which the now-obsolete mundane, social body is shown to have truly died to the world—and, in the postcrematory existence of the sannyasin (the "renouncer"), as the seat of sacrifice, which has now been internalized. It is here, in the inner fires oftapas, which fuel the offerings of one's vital breaths in the inner sacrifice known as the pranagnihotra, that the practice of yoga very likely had its theoretical origins.85 In the experience of the renouncer, the internal processes of yoga do nothing less than sustain him in a life beyond death. It is to this notion that the HYP passage we evoked at the beginning of this section alludes: "killed, rasa, like breath, revives itself."86 It is through this paradoxical pro cess that the hathayogin and alchemist ultimately realize the bodily immor tality that is the final end of their practice. The language both traditions employ to describe this process, through which the practitioner, once "slain" (mrta), is able to revive himself by tricking, even killing Death, car ries us to the very heart of Siddha mysticism: you have to first die to be come immortal. This is the import of one of Gorakhnath's most celebrated hams: "Die yogi die, dying is sweet [when you] die that death by which Gorakh, in dying, gained his vision [of the Absolute, immortality]."87 An alchemical echo is provided in the Padmdvat: "The Siddha's immortal body is like mercury. You can break it down, you can kill it, but you can't make it die."88 What is it that dies? It is the gross body, a husk that is to be cast off like the slough of a snake. How is this body made to die, in order that the golden, adamantine, or siddha body may emerge? As in the processes dis cussed above, breath control plays an important role here. So too, however,
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does the generation of yogic heat, of the fire of yoga iyogagni) that burns up the fire of time or death (kaldgni). In the former case, it is once again the two peripheral nadis whose emptying is likened to a death that gener ates new life (the filling of the susumna). In the seal called the mahavedha (the "great penetration"), "the breath, overflowing the two pittas . . . quickly bursts [into the medial channel]. The union (sambandha) of moon, sun, and fire which is to occur surely results in immortality. When the deathlike state (mrtavastha) arises, how can there be fear of death?"g''
Passing through a state of death to bodily immortality is most especially effected through the mediation of fire—here, the inner fire in which the renouncer has immolated his mundane body once he has "laid together" his sacrificial fires. This image is carried over into the hathayogic system, in which the fires of yoga (also called the fire of the absolute, the brahmagnt), kindled at the base of the subtle body, renders the medial channel a "cremation ground" (smas'dna).''" The hallmark of any cremation ground is, of course, its ashes, and it is with ashes that every Saiva renouncer, from time immemorial, has smeared his body. Internal fires and external ashes are brought together, in the hathayogic context, in two variations on the vajrolimudra, called the sahajoli and amaroli mudras. In the former, the part ners smear their bodies with a mixture of cow-dung ash and water follow ing vajroli; in the latter it is a mixture of "the nectar that flows from the moon" and ash that one smears over one's body.'" What are the implica tions of this externalization of an internal process, this wearing of one's yoga on one's sleeve? The answer to this question is quite nearly as old as the Veda itself.
5. Ashes to Nectar I have already mentioned the primacy given by the RA to the eating of killed or oxidized mercury (mrtasutaka, also called "dead ash," mrtabhasma) for realizing immortality.92 I have further alluded to the process of diges tion (jarana) by which such is obtained and to the fabulous properties pos sessed by said mercury. "Killed" mercury, itself "unresurrectable" (niriittha)—that is, incapable of returning to its prior, native state—is now capable of reviving other "killed" metals.'" What is it that makes rasa in its ashen (bhasmibhuta) state the most optimum form of mercury, both for transmutation and transubstantiation? Throughout this book, we have emphasized the complementarity of the
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three primal sacrificial elements of fire, fluid, and air and of their homologues in the bodily microcosm and the alchemical mesocosm. But what happens when these essences, these dosas, these gunas, actually combine? What is the composite or compound that is produced? Since the time of the Vedas, the ringing answer to this question has been ashes.'''* Here, we should note a certain symmetry between the rasa of Vedic sacrifice and the rasa of alchemical practice. In the former case, the raw material of the sacrificial oblation has no true ontic being until it has been cooked, refined, transformed, through exposure to fire. In this context, ev ery natural and cultural process becomes a matter of cooking: in the aging process, one is said to be "cooked by time."'" Elsewhere, the advance into the Indian subcontinent by Vedic culture was led by Agni, the sacrificial fire that was carried in a firepot, at the vanguard of "civilization"; it is this same sacrificial fire that restores and perfects (samskr) the rasa of Prajapati that flowed from him to create the world. So too, initiation, cremation, and the passage into the renunciant stage of life are all so many cases of cooking "to a turn" that which would otherwise remain unaltered, in a raw, untamed, undomesticated, even uncivilized form.96 Thus the princeturned-yogi Goplcand can state, "I used to be an unfired pot, thrown whichever way [the wheel] turned. When I was made a Jogi my guru did the firing."97 In the exemplary cooking process that is the sacrifice, the most subtle remainder of the process of combustion, beyond the cooked "leftovers" consumed by humans and the smoke and aroma of the cooked offering enjoyed by the gods, are ashes, bhasma[n] (from bhas, "consume," but also "shine"). Ashes are the shining remains of what has been consumed; they are the solid essence of the combustion of fluid oblation by purificatory fire. As such, ash is rasa in its optimal form—which is exactly what the alchemical tradition tells us in its myth of the origin of mercury (rasa). Its original cosmic matter being concealed by the "accidents" (kancukas) of its outward form, native mercury cannot, in and of itself, afford immortality. It is only after these superfluous accretions have been dispersed, by reduc ing mercury to ashes through the alchemical samskaras, that its inherent basic properties can be actualized. Ash, bhasma, is the supreme manifesta tion of primal matter. It therefore follows that the reduction of mercury, the rasa of the absolute, to ash is tantamount to the recovery of a primor dial perfection, of the absolute before its fall into nature, into manifesta tion. Preternatural (prior to nature) its powers are therefore supernatural (transcending nature). At the same time they are, in a cyclic universe, a
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reminder of the ultimate destiny of the universe when all things will be reduced to dross (the serpent Sesa, "Remains," whose body is composed of ash) and only the pure gold remain."" Herein lies the root of the Hindu calcinatory gnosis. It is in the context of early Saivism that a true "cult" of ashes first be comes incorporated into the Hindu tradition. Ashes, called either bhasma or vibhuti ("omnipresent," a term synonymous with siddhi, or the eight siddhis taken as an aggregate), have since at least the time of the Pasupatas been integral to Sana initiation and worship. Initiation involves bathing in ashes (bhasma-snana), while the worship of Bhairava entails smearing cowdung ash on the forehead—in place of the normal blood-red sindura—as well as consuming a pinch of said ash.w In so doing, humans are, of course, merely imitating the supreme god himself, whose own dark body is made luminous by the patina of iridescent ashes with which he besmears himself and the stuff of whose body is in fact ashen. Tradition in fact holds that Siva first took to wearing ashes follow ing his incineration of Kama, the Hindu Eros, in an irrefutable proof that the fires of yoga (yogagni) were greater than those of burning passion (kdmagni). Unmoved after having been pierced by Kama's arrows of lust, Siva opened his third eye—located at the level of the ajM cakra—and, with the supernatural accumulation of thermal energy that his yoga had afforded him, reduced Love's body to ashes. The fire that burned Kama was at once the sublimate of Siva's rasa (for Siva, as a yogin, is urddhvaretas), his yogic breaths, and the heat of his yogic austerities. The refined essence of these three elements—ashes—were taken by Siva and smeared over his body together (as we are told in one version of the myth) with mercury, said to be the concrete form taken by his agitation at the sight of ParvatI in this myth.100
termed a "theology of ashes," at the conclusion of the important myth of Siva in the Pine Forest. Here, after the phallic god has brought a group of uncomprehending Vedic sages to heel, he explains to them the importance of ashes.
In another myth, Siva shows his superiority over a human ascetic named iMarikanaka when the latter, having pierced his skin, "bleeds" pure vege table sap (sakarasa). He then dances for joy, proclaiming that his austerities have been successful {siddha). When Siva does likewise, and bleeds pure, snowy-white bhasma, the chastened ascetic is obliged to acknowledge the great god's supremacy.'01 Elsewhere, a myth from the RA (11.158-61) re lates how the demon Ruru, having eaten a pala of twelve-times-calcinated mercurial ash (bhasmasutaka), uproots the earth and pulverizes Siva's Mount Kailash. Siva "kills" mercury in combination with lead and red arse nic, smears this amalgam on the tips of his trident, and laminates Ruru. This parallelism, between ash and rasa, is explained, in what may be
I am Agni joined with Soma . . . The supreme purification of the uni verse is to be accomplished with ashes; I fortify my seed with ashes and sprinkle creatures with i t . . . By means of ashes, my seed, one is released from all sin .. . Ashes are known as my seed, and I bear my own seed upon my body . .. Let a man smear his body until it is pale with ashes . . . Then he attains the status of Lord of the Host (ganapatyam).. . and grasps the supreme ambrosia.lo: Siva's subsequent initiation of the Vedic sages culminates in an ashen bath, a bhasma-snana, after the model of Pasupata initiation rites. The role of ashes in initiation has a much more ancient pedigree, however, as at tested in an important myth from the Mahabharata. This is the epic myth of Kavya Usanas and his disciple Kaca, a myth which, while it bears a num ber of common themes with an Indo-Iranian myth, is nonetheless I Iindu in the detail that concerns us."" Here, Kaca, the son of Brhaspati, the chap lain of the gods (and grandson of Aiigiras, "Ember"), has been sent to Ka vya Usanas, the chaplain of the Asuras, the antigods, to wrest the secret of immortality from him. Through a number of plot twists, Kaca not only becomes the disciple (for five hundred years) of Kavya Usanas, but also the beloved of the latter's daughter, Devayanl. I Ie is hated and feared, however, by the antigods, who see him, quite rightly, as an enemy agent. They there fore kill and feed the boy to wolves, only to see him revived when Kavya Usanas pronounces his immortality formula over the boy's scattered re mains. The formula once pronounced, the boy bursts out of the bodies of the wolves, killing them as he himself is reconstituted. The antigods then kill the boy again, but this time they burn his body and place the ashes in Kavya Usanas's evening cordial. When the guru calls out to his disciple, the boy answers him from within his belly. Now the only way to save Kaca is to reveal to him the secret of immortality, such that Kaca, once he has been revived by bursting out of Kavya Usanas's body, might revive his guru in turn. When Devayanl says, "Do it, Daddy," Kavya Usanas has to give in and so initiates his disciple into the secret of immortality. When the formula is spoken, the boy bursts "like a full moon" out of his guru's body; he then revives his guru. This myth, which brings together the consumption of ashes, the trans-
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mission of a secret of immortality, and initiation, also seems to be the pro totype for myths of tantric transmission, in which the guru becomes the disciple of his disciple, and the disciple the guru of his guru. It is, as well, a humanization of the myths of the great gods Agni and Prajapati and an alloform of the legend of Gorakh and his guru Matsyendra. As such, it may well be, as Georges Dumezil maintains, that "within the corporate body of sorcerers, the disciple is just as important as his master as concerns the continued transmission of the . . . supernatural knowledge that is its com monwealth and its justification. Each needs the other."104 In this particular myth, Kaca's initiation further serves to render him Kavya Usanas's "biological" son. As such, he is, in a sense, Siva's grandson, given that Kavya Usanas himself once entered into the body of Siva, from which he exited in the form of a figure named Sukra ("Semen") as the result of that god's yogic powers of digestion.'05 Kavya Usanas's legacy lives on in medieval alchemical—as well as certain modern medical—traditions, in which the perfected alchemist is called a kavi (an alchemical wizard) and the Bengali Ayurvedic physician a kaviraj. The successful alchemist is a kavi because he, like the asura Kavya Usanas (Usanas, son of a kavi), is capable, through his poetic incantations and mystic knowledge, to bend nature to his will and thereby realize wealth, invincibility, and immortality for himself.106 The symbolic use of ashes by Saiva sectarians has become greatly ex panded since the age of the initiatory practices we have outlined to this point. So it is that the cremation ground, upon which human corpses are summarily reduced to ashes, was long the preferred haunt of tantrikas who, in their drug- or austerity-induced trances, saw and danced with the wild and fulminating Kali and Bhairava. The infernal dance of this divine pair is purificatory, serving as it does to burn away the decaying matter of a dying cosmos—both within themselves, in the bodies consumed there, and in the universal conflagration for which the burning ground is a mesocosm—for it is only when an ash-smeared Siva incinerates the universe with his ecstatic dance that universal liberation becomes possible. A body of devotional practices offered, in coastal Andhra Pradesh, to the terrible Saiva divinity Vlrabhadra, constitutes yet another practical ex tension of the Saiva theology of ashes. Here, the "growing" bodies of "ash fruits," formed of a mixture of cow-dung ash and acacia gum, are at once ritual reminders of the postmortem life of the dead, the "fruits" of karma, and manifestations of the expansive power ofvibhuti, which is homologized with semen, blood, and bone in this tradition. These "ash fruits" are called
pindas, "balls," which is the same term as is employed for the rice balls offered to the deceased in Hindu funerary rites, for aniconic stone monu ments to the dead which go back to the dawn of human civilization, for the embryo in the womb (all signified by the Marathi pind), as well as the Siva linga (Marathi pindt), the head as sacrificial offering or, conversely, the hu man torso or body as a whole.107 It is this final usage of the term pind that is most common among the Nath Siddhas. The human body is a pind, a "ball," which can be transformed, through initiation, yoga, and alchemy, into an immortal body. In the last chapter, I noted another usage of this minimalist definition of the body as a sphere or globe: this was the suffix -oli found in such terms as garbholi (the round fetus in the womb), a term that may bear some connection with the Hindi term for hailstone, oil. Else where, the insignia of the Naga akhadas (whose close relationship to the Nath Siddha orders has been noted) are nothing other than globes (golas) of ash;108 and the pills of mercurial ash which, held in the mouth, cause a wholly subtle and immortal alchemical body to emerge out of the husk of the gross, biological body are called gulika (or gutikds), "globules." 'TO According to Siddha logic, these are the wombs from which new life will emerge: ashen globules engender immortal globes. This leitmotif of Siddha theory and practice is epitomized in the legend of the birth of Kayanath ("Body-Nath"), a figure who likely lived in the seventeenth century, in the Jhelum district of present-day Pakistan, histori cally one of the most important centers of the Nath sampraddya."0 One day, Gorakhnath held a great feast for his fellow yogins. When the food had been dished out on leaf plates, the place of honor was given to Gorakhnath's venerable disciple Ratannath. As fate would have it, there were two plates of food lying before Ratannath when he sat down. After eating the food from the first plate, Ratannath then stood before the second plate. Having pronounced a mantra, he then caused ashes to flow from his body, after the fashion of Siva. These he fashioned into a ball, which he placed before the second plate of food. He then announced that that ball of ashes would eat the food sitting in front of it. The other yogins, who had begun to laugh, were quickly silenced when they saw that Ratannath's yogic energy was causing the ball of ashes to expand. The ball then split open and a laughing, fully-formed boy emerged from it and set about eating the food on the plate before him. It was then decided that this boy should be given a name and initiation into the Nath order. Gor-
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;ikh named the boy kayanath, son of Ratannath; ami X'icarnath initi ated him. Kayanath later became the abbot of the Bhera monastery, performed many miracles, and lived to the age of 101 years before quitting his body.1" While the account of Kayanath's birth constitutes the richest example of the symbolic use of ashes by the Nath Siddhas, it is by no means the earliest such legend. No less a figure than Gorakhnath himself is the prod uct of a similar manipulation of ashes. In a legend known throughout northern India and Nepal, Gorakhnath is himself the product of ashes and cow dung—whence his name Go-rakh ("Cow-Ash"). As the story goes, a brahmin woman who desires a son is given a pinch of ash by Matsyendra, who instructs her to eat it together with milk, following her purificatory bath after her next menses. Instead of eating the ash, she throws it onto a heap of cow dung behind her hut. Twelve years later, Matsyendra returns and asks for news of his son. When the woman avows that she had dis carded the ash, Matsyendra scoops away twelve years of accumulated cow dung to reveal a perfect twelve-year-old child yogin—for the boy has been practicing his sadhanas there since birth—whom he names Gorakh and makes his disciple."2 Gorakh's ashen dunghill, both a womb (like the wells in which Nath Siddhas of legend meditated for twelve years) and a tumulus (like the samddhis under which Nath Siddhas are buried), has its most significant struc tural parallel in what is perhaps that sect's most important external at tribute. This is the dhuni (from dht'i, "waft") a conical pile of wood ash and cow-dung ash which the wandering yogin heaps up wherever he alights. Its fire warms him, its coals serve to light his chillum pipe, and its ash is both the present or grace (prasdda) he bestows upon all who come to visit him and the substance with which he smears his own body in imitation of Siva."5 More than a rough and ready hearth, the dhuni is, quite literally, a double of the yogin's subtle body, a body that has already been cooked and transformed through his yogic austerities. The ashes of the dhuni represent the continuity of his unending sadhanas and thereby of his immortal subtle body. Long after a yogin has quit his mundane body, his dhuni (maintained and kept burning, in some cases, for centuries), like his samadhi, remains as a memorial and testimony to his continuing presence in the world. India is a country dotted with the samddhh and dhunis of its great yogins, whose eternal essence is epitomized through ashes."4 This is an identification
that is borne out in a great number of Nath legends, which we now pass in review. Just as his divine guru Siva had done to him upon his own initiation, Matsyendra, after he has exhumed Gorakh, initiates him with a bath of ashes. Gorakh does the same to his disciples, first "creating" them from ashes and then initiating them with more of the same. The Nath Siddhas, and Gorakh in particular, are great yogic progenitors, fecundating women with their yogic "seed," which they carry in their wallets (Jholt) in the form of rice grains, barleycorns, ashes, or water in which their loincloth has been washed. A number of Gorakh's illustrious disciples, including Guga Pfr and Carpati, are conceived and born in this way."5 Like calcinated mercury, the ashes of a Nath Siddha are capable of transforming matter in a myriad of other ways. In the legend of Puran Bhagat, Gorakh turns bullocks into men and women into asses with ashes; with ashes he dries up wells and causes a garden to burst into bloom. In the legend of Guga Pir, Gorakh creates gemstones and caters a wedding with ashes. Pavannath enriches an old brahmin couple with a gift of ashes that transforms their poverty into wealth. With ashes from his dhuni, Maniknath flattens a wall."6 Another Nath Siddha tradition relates the creation of the earth from ashes from the dhuni of the Goddess Sakti. When Siva promises to marry her, Sakti gives Siva two handfuls of ash from her dhuni: when these ashes are strewn upon the waters, the earth is created. In a similar account, Visnu creates the earth with ashes from Gorakh's dhuni. Yet, it is also ashes to which the universe will return, and these are the ashes that form the body of the cosmic serpent Sesa. But Sesa is also a venomous serpent, whose fiery breath itself reduces all matter to ashes."7 As such, he is like Siva who, possessed of an ashen body and wearing ashes on his yogic body, also reduces all matter to ashes in the universal dissolu tion—a dissolution dramatized in his incineration of Kama with the yogic fire he emitted from his third eye. Siva's creative semen becomes destruc tive when it has become transformed, yogically, through the raising of the internal kundalini serpent, into fire; yet it is also by virtue of his yogic prac tice that he is immune to the calcinating poison spat by the great serpent Vasuki, which, when he drinks it in the myth of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, turns his throat blue. The symmetry that emerges out of this data parallels that of the dis course of binding and piercing: just as the Siddha, by virtue of has having bound and pierced the volatile elements of his alchemical body, himself
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becomes unbindable and impenetrable and all-binding and all-penetrating; so the same Siddha, by virtue of having calcinated and reduced his alchemical body to ashes, himself becomes uncalcinable and all-calcinating, an ashen, ash-smeared, ash-producing, alchemical touchstone.
6. Reversal and Transformation Our discussion of the transformative powers of the ashes of death has carried us somewhat far afield of our survey of the serial progression of the alchemical operations in their relationship to the theory and practice of hatha yoga. In order that we might return to this progression, let us recall here that while swooning (murcchana), the third alchemical samskara, is a prelude to the powerful and transformative operations of binding (bandbana) and killing (marana), it also precedes samskaras four through eighteen, as those operations are described in the alchemical sources. With samskaras four through eight, we find ourselves in the presence of what appears to be a series of priming techniques not unlike those of yogic pranayama or the alternating ascent and descent of the kundalini. Following its swooning, mercury is first resurrected (utthapana), after which it is made to fall (patana). Next, it is awakened (bodhana) or suppressed (rodhana), then restrained (niyamana), and lastly kindled (dipana). As in alchemy, utthapana is a term employed in hathayogic discourse to designate an important "phase change." The kundalini, when she is awakened from her sleep, rises up (ut-tha) along the length of the medial channel. Because the raising of the kundalini is a repeated practice, she quite naturally falls down again (pat) to the base of the subtle body after the yogin has reemerged from his state of yogic withdrawal. As shown in the last chapter, the kundalini can be made to fall or fly upwards as well, after the fashion of the alchemical patana apparatus." 8 The experienced yogin may, of course, raise and lower his vital breath, energy, seed, and consciousness at will, which translates into so many withdrawals from and returns to mundane consciousness. When he finally chooses to opt out of mundane existence altogether, he definitively halts the downward flow and enters into samadhi. More common than the term utthapana in hathayogic parlance is the term bodhana, the awakening of the kundalini}™ Now, it happens that alchemical sources alternate between the terms bodhana and rodhana to designate this sixth operation, in which wholly stabilized mercury is naturally
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activated through combination with female sulfur. The same alternation is found in the Kaulavalinirnaya, a sixteenth-century ritual compilation, which terms the bindu of the subtle body, located above the sixth, the ajna cakra, as either BodhinI ("she who awakens") or RodhinI ("she who obstructs"). In order to understand this terminology, we must recall that the emanation of the Kaula universe is, on the microcosmic level, phonematic as well as material. All that exists is ultimately acoustic, vibratory in nature, an emanate or devolute of the primeval sonic vibration that gave rise to all creation, the mantra Om. When projected upon the subtle body, this acoustic emanation takes the form of the fifty-one phonemes (matrkas, "matrices" of subtle sound) of the Sanskrit alphabet, which are situated on the petals of the cakras (styled as lotuses) of the subtle body. When the yogin raises the inner kundalini, he is in effect telescoping these phonemes back into their higher emanates, causing the last and "lowest" phonemes, the final letters of the alphabet, to be absorbed into ever more subtle phonemes, culminating in the vowels and the phonemes ha and ksa. These two ultimate phonemes are located on the two petals of the sixth cakra, the ajna, which is situated behind the meeting point of the two eyebrows. The hierarchy of sound does not end here, however, since manifest sound is but the emanate of a subtler, nonmanifest vibration. Beyond the ajna, therefore, exist a number of levels of increasingly subtle substrates of sound, through which manifest sound is made to shade into nonmanifest sound. These shadings, located, in the subtle body, between the ajna and the crown of the head (or even beyond, i.e., outside the contours of the body, in a number of systems), generally include nada (resonance), bindu (drop), and bija (seed).120 This brings us back to the bodhini/rodhinialternation, which presumably occurs because the mundane mind (manas) becomes obstructed, held back at this point in tantric meditation: but this suppression (rodhana) of the fickle mind is nothing other than the first awakening (bodhana) of divine consciousness.1'1 The hathayogic use of the latter term has been described: after a period of sleep, the kundalini awakens to rise along the medial channel and thereby transform the yogin's body and being. The former is also an important term in the yogic practice of the Krama Kaula, in which rodhana designates "coagulation." When the yogin penetrates the void, he falls prey to the residues of prior thoughts, acts, events, and impressions. The yogin coagulates (rodhana) these residues into a single mass which he then melts down or liquidates (dravana) through meditation on the circle
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of Kalis. Through successive coagulations and liquifications these are ultimately annihilated, permitting the mystic to penetrate the ineffable void.'" With this, there comes the dawning of the light of pure consciousness, a possible parallel to the eighth alchemical operation, dipana. While most of the parallels between these four preparatory alchemical sainskaras on the one hand and yogic and tantric precept and practice on the other are nonexplicit and tenuous at best, we find ourselves on firmer ground in the case ofjarana, the thirteenth samskdra. Jarana, it will be recalled, consists of the stadial consumption or digestion of ever-increasing quantities of mica or sulfur by mercury, until said mercury becomes bound (baddha) or killed (m?ta).[2i This is a progressive operation, in which mercury, by taking increasingly large mouthfuls (grasa) of mica, in six successive operations, becomes calcinated. At each stage in this process, the mercury in question becomes physically altered: in the first stage, in which it consumes one sixty-fourth of its mass of mica, mercury becomes rodlike (danda[vat]). It next takes on the consistency of a leech, then that of crow droppings, whey, and butter. With its sixth and final "mouthful," in which mercury swallows one-half its mass of mica, it becomes a spherical solid.124 This six-step process, by which mercury is bound, is followed by another six-step process, in which the proportions of mica or sulfur swallowed by mercury greatly increase. It is this latter process that constitutes jarana proper. After praying to Lord Siva that he "swallow my mouthful,"125 the alchemist causes mercury to absorb a mass of mica equal to its own. Next, mercury is made to swallow twice its mass of mica, and so on until the proportions ultimately reach 1:6, with mercury absorbing six times its mass of mica. In this final and optimal phase mercury, said to be "six-times killed," is possessed of fantastic powers of transmutation.126 More superior yet is a sequence called khecari jarana, in which mercury is made to absorb vast quantities of powdered gemstones, the densest substances known to man. At the conclusion of this process, mercury takes the shape of a linga. The alchemist who ingests said mercury is immediately transported to the realms of the gods, Siddhas, and Vidyadharas.127 Modern researchers in rasa sastra lament the fact that a certain step in the technique of jarana has been lost, and with it the ability to transmute base metals into gold and afford immortality and eternal youth.128 We may adduce three hathayogic parallels to alchemical^rawa, i.e., absorption or digestion. The first and most obvious of these is the six-stage process of the piercing of the cakras. When the yogin raises his seed, breath, and energy through the six cakras, he does nothing less than effect
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the reabsorption, on a microcosmic level, of the five sense-capacities, action-capacities, and subtle and gross elements back into their ethereal essence. So it is that the element earth, predominant in the lowest cakra, the muladhara, becomes absorbed into the element water at the level of the second cakra, the svadhisthana. Water is absorbed back into fire at the third cakra, the manipura; fire into air at the fourth, or anahata cakra; and air into ether at the fifth cakra, the visitddhi. All are telescoped, swallowed back, into the mind (?nanas) which, identified with the sixth cakra, the ajiia, will, in the final phases of this process, itself be absorbed into its source and essence, the pure Siva-consciousness located in the thousand-petaled cakra of the cranial vault. This process is said, in a ham of Gorakhnath, to effect the absorption or digestion (jarana) of the celibate yogin's seed back into its ambrosial essence, by which he himself is rendered immortal. He who is unable to retain his seed, however, is condemned to death.129 As we have already shown, it is not semen alone that is raised and transformed through the sixstage piercing of the cakras. The rise of the hmdalim is also a telescoping of sound back into its primal unmanifest substrate. It is this dynamic that grounds the practice of mantra yoga, the acoustic complement to the hydraulic techniques of hatha yoga. This process, characterized by everdeepening states of yogic absorption, is qualitatively measured in terms of the audition of increasingly subtle sounds (nada). An important turning point in this process, known as "reversing the nada"xw occurs when the external voicing of mantras yields to the audition of unvoiced mantras called the "unstruck sound" (anahata ndda).'il So it is that as the yogin's consciousness is raised through the final phases of yogic practice, the anahata nada, which begins to reverberate at the level of the heart, undergoes a series of qualitative transformations, successively resounding like the roar of the ocean, of clouds, the sound of the kettledrum, conch, bell, horn, flute, lute, and finally, the buzzing of bees.132 These transformations, to ever subtler levels of sound, effect the total absorption of the yogin's mind. Becoming one with its object of knowledge—i.e., the Siva-consciousness that is the substrate of all sound and being—it becomes fused with this object of knowledge and telescoped, absorbed, dissolved into it. 1 " These homologies, between hatha yoga, mantra yoga, and alchemy, are seemingly taken for granted in a passage from the HYP (4.96), which states that "the mind is like mercury which, bound (baddham) and freed from its transitory nature through its assimilation (jarana) of the sulfur of mantric vibration (nada), wanders about in the ether.""4 A similar use of
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terminology may be found in the alchemical RRS, which designates the ultimate phase of alchemical jarana, by which a mercurial compound is roasted in a puta with six times its mass of sulfur, as sabija-bandha ("binding with seed"). 1 " In addition to such qualitative measures of absorption as the inaudible sounds heard by the yogin in his practice, there also exists a set of quantitative measures of the same, which moreover appear to bear a direct relationship to an alchemical progression of a similar order. These are related to the dsanas, the yogic postures, through which the yogin not only immobilizes his body, but also his breath, seed, and mental activities."6 Maintaining a yogic posture alone requires tremendous powers of concentration, and so we should not be surprised to find a quantitative measure of immobility combined with breath retention to be a yardstick for yogic integration. Here it is the four-second matra ("measure of time") ox pah (the equivalent of six matras, i.e., 24 seconds) that is of critical interest. As one retains a yogic posture and one's breath for an increasing number of palas, ever-dilating durations of time, one acquires ever more fantastic siddhk. After twenty-four years—i.e., 60 X 24 X 365 X 24 palas, the highest multiple in this progression—of total yogic absorption, one outsurvives the universal dissolution, in which even the gods Brahma, Visnu, and Siva perish.137 This notion of a "geometric progression" of a durational order has its alchemical parallel, in which the consumption of an increasing number of palas ("straws," here a unit of weight equivalent to 82.624 grams) of mercury that has undergone the process ofjarana with mica yields a dilating life span, such that the consumption of ten palas renders the alchemist a second Siva.138 When rasa and breath control constitute the Work in two parts, a time-mass continuum of this order is quite natural. The impacts of these two allied practices on the human body are also identical: one can neither be consumed by old age (ajara) nor by death (amara). We will discuss other important progressions of the same order in the next chapter.
7. The Legends of Goplcand and Cauranginath: Alchemical Allegories? According to legend, countless Nath Siddhas have closed themselves into wells or caves for twelve-year periods to emerge with transformed bodies; six months of yogic or alchemical austerities are said, in guides to hatha-
19s
The Dynamics of Transformation yogic practice, to produce the same result.139 Elsewhere, we have already seen how Dharamnath was able to incinerate the (since then) lost city of Pattan and a good part of the Sind by simply remaining motionless, standing on his head atop a betel-nut or sopari stone for twelve years.140 There exist, however, a number of legends of the Nath Siddhas in which yogic immobility is raised to a higher level than the mere retention of some fixed posture. These are the many accounts of dismemberment, inhumation, or exile that, in a sense, set the Nath Siddhas apart from other yogic traditions. Shashibhushan Dasgupta refers to these in his discussion of the "general air of supernaturalism" proper to Nath Siddha traditions. Others, such as Eliade and Van Kooij, find in these accounts traces of the shamanic origins of Nath Siddha practices. While many of these feats—like those of the Taoist magicians and immortals in China—may indeed be typologized as shamanic, following the "morphology" of this phenomenon so beautifully developed by Mircea Eliade,141 they also betray an alchemical stamp. Mercury and its compounds in flux are never anthropomorphized in the Indian alchemical texts (where they are either deified or zoomorphized) as they are in western alchemical traditions, in which the corpus alcbymiciim of the "Ethiopian" or "Son of God" is dismembered, crushed, cooked, etc. to be resuscitated in a new divine form. It is rather in the legends of the Nath Siddhas that such allegorical dismemberments and tortures occur; and while the origins of these accounts may be as old as religion itself, the "gloss" they receive in Nath Siddha mythology appears to be both alchemical and yogic. Of all the legend cycles of the Nath Siddhas, the song cycles concerning Goplcand are the among the richest in this sort of imagery.'4- The outline of this legend is as follows: Mayana[matJ], the mother of Goplcand and a "sorceress" disciple of Gorakh, loses her husband Manikcand to Yama (i.e., he dies). When she is unable to wrest her husband back from Death, she is given" a son to replace him, as it were, by Gorakh. She learns, however, that her son will not survive his adolescence if he does not become a yogin. The intrigue of the cycle lies in the ends to which Mayana goes to bring her son under the tutelage of a guru—who in this case is Hadi-pa, or Jalandharanath.143 The origins ofJalandhara go back to the original cosmogony, as related m the Bengali Goraksa Vijay and Min Cetati. Out of a void (siinya) there appears, like a bubble, the Egg of Brahman. The unmanifest Niranjana then manifests itself as Adinatha who, from his tapas, creates the goddess Ketakl,144 out of whom arise, from her mouth, the god Brahma; from her
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forehead, the god Visnu; and from her yo?ii, the god Siva. To test these three, Adinatha takes the form of a decayed corpse, rotting in the wash of a river. Only Siva is willing to perform Adinatha's funeral rites: in so doing, he uses Visnu as his firewood and Brahma as his fire. From the burning corpse of Adinatha arise the five original Nath Siddhas: Mina, from his navel, Gorakh from his matted hair, Jalandhara (Hadi-pa) from his bones (hada), Kanha-pa (Kanerinath) from his ears (kana), and CaurangI from his limbs (aiiga). Siva then takes Adinatha's Ketakl as his consort: she becomes the goddess Gauri. Gaurl then decides to test these four sons' (CaurangI is left out of this episode) yogic constancy.145 All fail except Gorakh, who looks upon her as his mother—and as a reward is "reborn," as his own son, from water wrung from his karpati (loincloth) and drunk by the Goddess: this son is Carpati. Matsyendra is cursed to be debauched by sixteen hundred women in the forest or kingdom of Kadall; Kanha-pa is exiled to a country called Dahuka; and Hadi-pa is turned into a low-caste sweeper (Hadi). Such is the mythic origin of Gopicand's guru. Mayana learns that it is only by taking yogic initiation from a Hadi that Goplcand can be saved. But the young prince appears to be more troubled by his sorceress mother and the prospect of exchanging his kingship for servitude to a sweeper than he is by the hearsay that he should otherwise die young. He therefore puts his mother through a series of terrible ordeals, which are so many tests of her yogic power: She was thrown into fire, but even her garment was not stained with smoke; she was drowned in water bound within a bag, but mother Gariga herself came forward to welcome her into her [Gariga's] bosom; she walked on a bridge made of hair; she walked on the edge of a razor; she was shut up for seven full days and nights within a boiler containing boiling oil, which was being heated from below constantly;146 she crossed all the rivers in the boat made of the husk of a corn, but nothing could bring about her death, neither was any part of her body damaged in any way. Mayana herself declared to her son Goplcand, "By the practice of mystic knowledge one becomes immortal . . . just like the current of the tide-wave running backward . .. When the creation will sink below and finally dissolve, and the earth will be not and there will remain only all-pervading water, the sun and the moon will set forever and the whole universe will be destroyed—I shall float on for ever—I shall have no death."147
The Dynamics of Transformation
(As we shall see, the RA, in its concluding verses, promises just such an end for the Rasa Siddha who has perfected his craft: he will live on, above the terrible ocean of existence and beyond the cosmic dissolution, in the world of the divine Siddhas.)148 Goplcand is eventually persuaded to become Hadi's disciple. In order to test his sincerity, however, Hadi sells him—for twelve cowries worth of cannabis—into bondage in the house of a sorceress named Hira (Diamond), in the "southern land," for twelve years. During this time, Hadi sits at the bottom of the sea, beneath fourteen fathoms of water. Hira transforms Goplcand into a ram and later sends him to hell, which Hadi harrows to save him. At the end of this period, Hadi completes Gopicand's initiation; then, judging that he has made improper use of his yogic powers, nullifies them. A furious Goplcand has Hadi sealed, with horse dung, into the bottom of a well. Twelve years later, Kanha-pa, also a disciple of Hadi, is informed by Gorakh that his guru has been buried in a well by Goplcand. Kanha-pa, through a subterfuge, manages to exhume Hadi. Knowing that Hadi's accumulated yogic energy, to say nothing of his wrath at being buried in such a way by his disciple, might well destroy Goplcand entirely, Kanhapa makes three effigies of Goplcand: one of iron, one of silver, and one of gold.149 When Hadi is called up out of the well, his angry gaze reduces the three effigies to ashes. His fury sufficiently diffused at this point, Hadi is presented with the real Goplcand, whose yogic powers he then restores.1'" These themes, of dismemberment and restoration, and of twelve-year periods of forced meditation, are quite common to Nath Siddha legend. Gorakhnath explains in a poem that he was born, after twelve years passed inside the womb of a barren woman, with both arms and legs cut off: the commentator to this passage glosses this as birth, through yoga, of a new body from which the net (arms and legs) of maya has been cut away.151 In another account, Gorakh awakens after twelve years of "death" (muvd).152 In still another legend, Gorakh hangs himself upside down from a tree over a raging fire, until the odor of his burning flesh attracts the attention of the god Brahma, who grants him a boon.155 While still a novice, Gorakh plucks out the pupil of his eye, which he barters for food to feed his guru Matsyendra: Matsyendra restores his eye, through the use of a mantra.154 This is, of course, the same Matsyendra whose own recumbent and lifeless body is diced up by Queen Kamala, when he has entered into the body of her husband. Siva has these pieces
•.,8
Chapter Nine brought to his abode on Mount Kailash, where he safeguards them until Gorakh's return, twelve years later. Matsyendra's soul is then restored to his reconstituted body.155 More often than reconstituting Matsyendra, however, Gorakh is busy dismembering Matsyendra's various sons—generally to awaken Matsyendra from his attachment to phenomenal existence. On one occasion it is Matsyendra's son Mlna that Gorakh beats against a stone like a washerwoman until he is dead.156 In another legend, Gorakh kills and skins Matsyendra's two sons NemI and Parsva—whose names are identical to those of two founders of the Jain religion—and later revives them."" Elsewhere, he transforms certain of his disciples such that one half of their bodies becomes gold and one half iron.158 These supernatural, fantastic, and clearly shamanic elements, a staple of Nath Siddha legend, are nowhere as evident as in the best known and perhaps the oldest of such accounts, the legend of Caurahgi ("FourLimbs") or Puran Bhagat. This latter name, by which he is known in the longest recension of his legend, from the Punjab,159 may be read as "Total Devotee" (pfirna bhakta). Its second member may, however, be read in another way: among many tribal and popular traditions bhagat is a term employed for a shaman, soothsayer, sorcerer, exorcist, or a person who communes with the dead. Elsewhere, the term is applied to oracular devotees of the Goddess. When one considers that the Mongol term boge/boWbeki means "male shaman," this alternate reading for Puran Bhagat's name (i.e., "Total Shaman") ought not to be rejected out of hand.160 While Caurahgi is generally held to be the son of King Salivahana (Sal Vahan, Salwan, Sulivan, Sulwahan in vernacular transcriptions), a Punjabi recension of his legend first calls him King Sahkh. Finally, one source maintains that Cauraiiginath was born of Siva's seed.161 Puran Bhagat is the son of Sahkh/Salwan's first queen Acchran, and it is not until the age of twelve that has his first audience with the junior queen, Luna (or Lunan/ Nunan/Nonan). 162 This queen, who is in reality a terrible witch,165 falls in love with her adolescent stepson and attempts to seduce him. When he refuses her advances, she, like Potiphar's wife in the biblical story of Joseph, denounces him to the king, claiming that he had seduced her.164 To say that death has no fury like a woman scorned would be a great understatement in Luna's case. At her urging, the king orders that Puran Bhagat be bound (bandbke) hand and foot and that his head be cut off and kebab'ed.165 When the boy is brought before the king, he takes a vow of truth: let the king plunge him into a cauldron of boiling oil; his innocence will be proven if no part of his body, not even one of his fingers, be burnt.
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Luna lights the fire and puts on the cauldron, and Puran Bhagat is plunged into the boiling oil for four hours, from which he emerges unscathed.166 Luna nevertheless has her way, and an outcaste is ordered to cut off Puran Bhagat's hands, gouge out his eyes, and throw him down a well.167 The outcaste, pitying the young prince, spares him, and instead slays a fawn and brings its eyes and blood to Luna; she, however, tests this blood by plunging a pearl into it and sees that it is not that of her stepson.168 The outcaste, fearing for his own life, goes to the forest where Puran Bhagat has hidden. In order to spare him, Puran Bhagat has him do Luna's bidding. His arms and legs are cut off, his eyes gouged out, and his body thrown down a dry, broken-down well (jirnandbakupa). Also at Puran Bhagat's request, he returns to the city to tell Acchran that her son will return after twelve years.169 Acchran, turned out of the city by the king, comes to the well in which Puran Bhagat has been thrown. He cries up to her "Set my elephant free, mother, to go to the Kajali Forest. . ."17° Twelve years pass, until one day Gorakh and his retinue of yogins come to Puran Bhagat's well on their way from their monastery at Tilla to Sialkot. There they find the young man and draw him out with a single thread of spun cotton. Gorakh then restores his eyes and, sprinkling nectar (amrta) over him, his limbs.171 Twenty-four years later, Gorakh returns again to the well and finds that Puran Bhagat has remained inside, in the practice of yoga. When Puran Bhagat asks Gorakh to initiate him into the Nath order, Gorakh first tests his mettle by sending him to beg alms from Sundran ("Beautiful"), the queen of Sirhhala. There, after an episode evocative of the experiences of Goplcand and Matsyendra in that land, but in which Puran Bhagat remains celibate and free (and Queen Sundran kills herself), Gorakh and his disciple Kanlpa (Kanha-pa) initiate him with ashes and earrings (mundrdfi).172 Now a full-fledged yogin, Puran Bhagat returns to Sialkot, his childhood home, where his mere presence causes his garden to burst into bloom. He restores his mother Acchran's sight and forgives Salwan and Luna. To the latter he gives grains of dhak and rice from his yogin's wallet, promising that by swallowing them whole, she will conceive and bear a son, Rasalu.173 Apart from their clearly "shamanic" motifs, the accounts we have passed In review may in certain cases be also be read as so many alchemical allegories.174 Dismemberment, binding, sealing under the earth with horse dung, boiling in oil, and birth from a burning corpse evoke the alchemical operations of mardana, bandhana, samputa, sarana, utthapana, and marana. Hadi-
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pa's incineration of metallic effigies of Goplcand, Gorakh's transformation of the stuff of his disciples' bodies into bonded gold and iron, the names Hlra ("Diamond") and Kajall Van, and an array of other elements also appear to betray an alchemical matrix. It is, however, the legend of Puran Bhagat that arguably may most be qualified as a medieval Indian alchemical allegory. Like mercury, its hero is born of Siva's seed; his stepmother Luna (lavana, corrosive "salt")175 causes him to be dismembered (mardana, marcmci), after first boiling him in oil (sarana). The well he is thrown into is jlrnandha, which evokes the closed (andha) crucible in which mercury is calcinated (Jirna, the past passive participal form of the same rooty'r that generates jarana) or bound (baddha). This well is moreover identified with Kajall Van, the "forest of black mercuric sulfide" (kajjalf).17'' After twelve years, he is drawn out of his well and restored through the magical techniques of Gorakhnath, who restores him to wholeness with amrta. The legend ends with Puran Bhagat offering Luna grains (gutikas) to eat, by which she conceives Rasalu, "the mercurial one" (rasa).177
8. T h e Man with the Golden Finger and Gorakh's Smithy Such legends of bodily dismemberment and restoration as that of Puran Bhagat are not wholly unique to the Nath Siddha tradition. A number of similar accounts, apparently of Rasa Siddha inspiration, are recounted by the eleventh-century Muslim savant Alberuni. One is "a tale about. .. the city ofValabhl": A man of the rank of a Siddha asked a herdsman with reference to a plant called Thohar, of the species of the Lactaria, from which milk flows when its leaves are torn off, whether he had ever seen Lactaria from which blood flows instead of milk. When the herdsman declared that he had, he gave him some drink-money that he should show it to him, which he did. When the man now saw the plant, he set fire to it, and threw the dog of the herdsman into the flame. Enraged thereby, the herdsman caught the man, and did with him the same as he had done to his dog. Then he waited till the fire was extinguished, and found both the man and the dog, but turned to gold. He took the dog with him, but left the man on the spot. Now some peasant happened to find it. He cut off a finger, and went to a fruit-
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seller who was called Ranka, i.e. the poor, because he was an utter pauper and evidently near bankruptcy. After the peasant had bought from him what he wanted, he returned to the golden man, and then found that in the place where the cut off finger had been, a new finger had grown.178 In another such account, the body of an alchemist, aided by the king of Malwa, becomes transformed through a series of alchemical samskdras. This account, related above in chapter three, ends with the king withholding the final "packet" of alchemical preparations, with the result that the alchemist, rather than arising out of the cauldron as a perfect, invincible immortal, is transformed into a anthropomorphic lump of silver.17'' What is remarkable about this latter account, apart from its content, is that it appears to correspond quite directly to the alchemical operation with which the RA closes, at the end of its eighteenth chapter. This procedure, related above in chapter five, culminates when the Alchemical Man emits the mantra "Hum!" and arises out of the cauldron with a massive body that shines like the sun and is possessed of all the siddhh. If such homologous operations are only implicit in the Goplcand and Puran Bhagat legends, they are made explicit in a poem in which Gorakhnath compares his subtle body to goldsmithy:180 I take the gold [the void essence] in the goldsmithy [the cranial vault]—I am a goldsmith by trade. Pumping the bellows [of my breaths], and stabilizing my mercury, I have fixed it and then mixed it together with mica. I the goldsmith am in my gold. The root cakra [miiladhara] is my firepot. I forge it on the anvil of vibration [nada], using my drop [bindu] hammer to press out the gold. In an ever-verdant forest my poisoned charcoal [burns, with its fire] blowing upward naturally, through the bellows' twin jet.181 Harmonizing [the jets of] sun and moon [ida zndpingala, upbreath and downbreath] I stop the breath [kumbhaka], and breath is merged into breath. With one ratti [grain] of work, you can steal away a masa [lentil's weight]'"-'—and I am the ratti that does the stealing. Stealing the masa, I remain within the masa: by gathering up [gold] in this way, it is I who am gathered into myself."" Gold above, gold beneath, gold in the midst of gold.184 He who
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makes the triadic void his dwelling-place has a body that is neither
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pure nor impure. That which is beyond mind [unmani] is the balance beam. Mind is the weighing pan, and six lentil-weight of breath are in the pan. While Gorakhnath was sitting here seeking after gold, gold came in [to his smithy] of its own accord."186
Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality ... the tiny points of light that appear all over the Himalayas when the holy men light their fires . . . '
Whereas Indian medical tradition defines rasdyana as the regeneration or reconstitution of the body, through the restoration of the vital bodily fluids (rasas), to a youthful state of health and virility,-' the alchemical usage of the term is a more ambitious one. In alchemy, the rasa in question is mercury, which substitutes itself for human bodily fluids and thereby transforms a body of flesh and blood into a golden (svarna),i adamantine (vajra),* or perfected (siddha) body. As shown in chapter five, the Siddha path consists of three complementary approaches to the attainment of such a body: the erotico-mystical, the hathayogic, and the alchemical.5 These approaches are complementary inasmuch as all play on the correspondence between human and divine vital fluids (rasas) on the one hand and, on the other, the dynamic of "piercing" or "penetration" (vedha), which effects the transformation of the body in question through all three of these complementary techniques. This same term, vedha, is employed in (i) a form of tantric initiation involving a transmission of vital fluids from teacher to disciple, (2) the hathayogic piercing of the cakras as well as in a particular technique (called mahdvedha, the "great penetration") employed to that end, and (3) the alchemical transmutation of base metals into gold. In fact, the alchemical use of this term makes little sense—for why should transmutation be referred to as "piercing"?—until it is viewed in the light of these parallel and complementary practices.61 begin this chapter by showing the ways in which the notion of "perfection through penetration" was meaningful in the tantric context and conclude by delineating the various registers upon which said perfection manifested itself—in the form of supernatural powers (siddhis), bodily immortality (jivanmukti), and apotheosis in the form of accession to the higher spheres of the superhuman Siddhas.
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3°4 Chapter Ten
i. Initiation in Medieval Indian Literature The encounter (or high-impact collision) between representatives of religious and temporal authority and power is a favorite literary theme in India, where kings have been running into one or another sort of holy man, both inside and outside of texts, for millennia. One of the best-known myths of classical and modern Hinduism is the account of Hariscandra, king of Ayodhya, the Job of Hinduism, and the trials he suffers at the hands of Visvamitra, who had earlier been the officiating priest at his royal consecration. Following the ritual services he has rendered, Visvamitra the priest (even though he was himself a prince by birth) has the right to demand a fee {daksina) from Hariscandra. According to brahmanic ideology, this fee is Visvamitra's due not only because he has performed a service for his king, but also—and most important—because temporal rule is, fundamentally, a brahman prerogative that brahmans, in a mythic past, delegated to their ksatriya juniors.7 This they did, we are told, in order that brahmans might concern themselves with the more elevated matters of dharma and vwksa, leaving for kings the dirty work of governing, dispensing justice, waging wars, fathering princes, etc. Brahmans retained, however, their authority over ksatriyas in their role as the advisors, the mentors {mantrim) of their kings, by playing a sacerdotal role in rituals vital to the harmonious continuation of the latter's rule and, most important, by deigning to perform the ceremony of royal consecration, of which a crucial moment was the ritual "punishment" {danda), by a brahman priest, with a rod (called danda in the hands of the king, but called a sphya in the sacerdotal context) of the otherwise unpunishable {adandya) king.8 And, following his consecration—the delegation by his brahman initiators of their own sovereignty to him—the king also found himself in their debt in the matter of the fee that was their due. In effect, the king wrote his brahman priests a blank check in these situations, and it is the amount of this check that sets up the dramatic tension in the myth of Hariscandra. In this Puranic myth,9 Visvamitra, who is furious at Hariscandra for a number of reasons, exacts his revenge by ruining Hariscandra financially. The daksina that Visvamitra demands of Hariscandra is astronomical, an amount far greater than even a king can possibly pay. The righteous Hariscandra attempts to acquit himself of his debt by giving his entire kingdom to Visvamitra, yet this is not enough. He then sells his wife and son into slavery, but Visvamitra is still unsatisfied. Lastly, he sells himself into slavery and, after a dozen years of terrible suffering and depradation, has his
3°s Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
kingdom and family restored to him by the god Dharma—who has been disguised as Hariscandra's employer, an untouchable disposer of corpses on the Benares cremation ground. The happy ending has the royal family and its entire capital city elevated, apotheosized as it were, to an atmospheric level—with Visvamitra's blessing. This is the ca. fourth-century A.D. Puranic myth of Hariscandra,10 in which an old and uneasy alliance between the sacred authority of the brahman priesthood and the temporal power of ksatriya royal sovereignty is the source of narrative tension. But India is changing. The Gupta empire, the last Hindu empire of India, collapses in the seventh century. A troubled "middle ages" follows, during which much of north India falls under the yoke of foreign, non-I Iindu rulers. The old order is crumbling, and the ritual order ensured by the old brahmanic system is beginning to look antiquated. New forms of religious order and authority (monastic orders) as well as new religious sects appear to fill the power vacuum or to aid Hinduism in going underground in times of Muslim rule. When paradigms shift, so too do paradigmatic narratives. A tenthcentury play by Ksemlsvara, the Candakaus'ikau (Wrath of Visvamitra), is a case in point. The core of this dramatic narrative is the same as that of the Puranic myth: Hariscandra, suffering the fury of Visvamitra, has been relegated to a position of abject slavery in Benares. What is novel in Ksemlsvara's otherwise rather dreary adaptation is the sectarian guise of Hariscandra's savior. Rather than having Dharma, the I Iindu god of Universal Order disguised as the untouchable lord of the Benares cremation ground (a figure nowadays called the dom-rdf), Ksemlsvara has the god parade as a Kapalika.1' He bears all the markings of a tantrika: he is ash smeared, decked out with human bones and skulls, "having the appearance of Siva Bhutanatha." He reads Hariscandra's mind, controls "vampires," and possesses alchemical preparations which afford him immortality (rasdyana), the power to transmute (dhdtuvdda), and the power of flight (padalepa), and possesses an eye unguent (aiijana) that permits him to see underground to find buried treasure. n This Kapalika, portrayed most sympathetically by Ksemlsvara, having introduced himself to Hariscandra, departs and then returns in a twinkling with a vampire in tow; on the vampire's shoulders is an immense mineral treasure, discovered with the aid of the Kapalika's cansee-underground-with-it unguent, which Hariscandra may now use to pay off his debts to the irrascible Visvamitra.14 Ksemlsvara's adaptation of the original Puranic account is truly remarkable when we consider the sort of people the Kapalikas were made out to
Chapter Ten
be by their orthodox critics. The Kapalikas, fornicators with menstruating women, cremation-ground consumers of human flesh, worshippers of the female sexual organ, brahman murderers, were the Hell's Angels of medieval India. This drama is therefore a watershed of sorts in the history of the literature on brahman-ksatriya relations in classical India. What Hariscandra cannot pay the brahmanic priest Visvamitra retail the Kapalika wizard can, through his supernatural powers, get him wholesale. We may therefore take Ksemisvara's superimposition—of a Kapalika guise upon a god of moral order—to be an indication of just how tattered that old order was looking to certain elements of Hindu society. We may further see in this tenth-century adaptation an indication that tantric practitioners were replacing old-order brahman priests (even if Visvamitra was originally the most heterodox of all the brahmanic sages) in the role of advisors to ksatriya kings. The new partnership that was being forged—between Hindu princes and representatives of one or another of the Saiva orders—such as the Kapalika described by Ksemisvara—is, through some one thousand years of Indian literature, described from a number of perspectives. At times, the new world order curiously resembles the old, with tantrikas asserting their hegemony over their princely patrons with threats and violence. In nearly every case, narrative depictions of the tantrika-prince relationship sparkle with the serendipity of the medieval literary style, with vampires, wizards, mysterious ascetics, hidden treasure, and the supernatural intervening time and again. Behind all the glitter, however, one important leitmotif emerges: this is the theme of a yogic or tantric initiation of the king by a Saiva guru. We take our second medieval example from the eleventh-century Kashmiri classic, Somadeva's Vetalapancavimsati (Twenty-five Tales of the Vampire). These tales, inserted within the massive Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of Rivers of Story), are themselves framed by a narrative that begins when a king named Trivikramasena discovers that each of the fruits a mysterious ascetic has been bringing him every day for ten years has a precious jewel inside of it. When he questions the ascetic as to his reasons for such largesse, the mystery man, named Ksantasila, replies that he needs the king to help him perform a secret cremation-ground rite. On the appointed night (the dark of the moon), the king comes to the cremation ground, where Ksantasila bids that he bring him the corpse of a man hung in a sisoo tree a short way to the south. The king cuts down the corpse which, as it turns out, is possessed by a loquacious vampire who narrates twenty-five
3°7 Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
stories ending in riddles which the king must solve lest his head burst into a thousand pieces. At the end of the final story, the vampire informs the king that Ksantaslla's true intention has been to offer him, the king, as a human sacrifice to the vampire storyteller, in order to win for himself, Ksantasila, lordship over the Vidyadharas, the Wizards of medieval Indian tradition. Ksantasila, who bears all the markings of a terrible Kapalika, has the tables turned on him by the king, who cuts off his head, the which he then offers, together with the heart, to the vampire. Siva descends, and in a deus ex machina scenario reminiscent of the Puranic Hariscandra myth, grants Trivikramasena dominion over the earth as well as the Vidyadharas. This story takes up all of the major elements of the Candakausika drama, but with all the pieces turned around. Visvamitra, the wrathful exemplar of the priestly function who empties Hariscandra's royal treasury in order to better abuse him is here replaced by the evil Kapalika Ksantasila who fills Trivikramasena's treasury in order to later abuse him. The good Kapalika of the Candakausika is here replaced by the vampire who had been his treasure-bearing coolie; and the vampire of the eponymous tales in a sense effects Trivikramasena's initiation—in this case to lordship over the denizens of an atmospheric realm, the Vidyadharas. An interesting feature of the Vampire Tales narrative is the need, on the part of a renouncer, of a royal hero in order to accomplish his ends. A similar theme, of a symbiotic relationship between a tantrika and a heroic prince, is found in an episode from Banabhatta's seventh-century Harsacarita which describes the meeting between king Puspabhuti and Bhairavacarya, a powerful south Indian ascetic, who is decked out in Kapalika garb and wears great crystal kundala earrings. One day, Bhairavacarya asks the king to come and assist him in the completion of a powerful rite, the goal of which is to gain control over a vampire and become lord of the Vidyadharas. Once again, the setting is a cremation ground under the dark of the moon. Once again, a corpse and all manner of tantric paraphernalia are brought into play. When the terrible vampire arises out of the corpse's mouth, the king's swordsmanship saves the day, and Bhairavacarya becomes a Vidyadhara. Here, the same elements are present, but once again, in a slightly different order. Now it is the vampire who is evil and the Kapalika who is good rather than the other way around; now the king aids the Kapalika, rather than the vampire aiding the king, to become the lord of the Vidyadharas. What remains constant is the ritual structure, the transformative late-night cremation-ground rite which effects a breakthrough to another world and superhuman powers.
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Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
Another, less obvious, literary account of power politics between tantrikas and kings is Kalhana's chronicle of the fall of the tenth-century Kashmiri king Cakravarman. Whereas Kalhana wrote his Rajatarangini in the twelfth century, the amount of detail he gives concerning a piece of palace intrigue—which had occurred some two hundred years earlier—leads one to believe that the story was grounded in something more than Kalhana's imagination. While Sir Aurel Stein, who translated this work at the turn of the century, stated that Kalhana's "amusing anecdote look[ed] to be authentic,"15 we might also choose to see in it an allegorization of a piece of tantric sorcery. In the spring of A.D. 936, Cakravarman, with the help of a group feudal landholders called the Damaras, breaks the back of a military caste called the Tantrins, who had been the praetorian guard of his rival for the throne. Cakravarman has perhaps not seen the last of the Tantrins however; moreover, these Tantrins have much of the tantrika about them, as the principal episode in Cakravarman's one-year reign16 would appear to indicate. One night, the king is entertained in his court by an "outcaste" Dom (the same Dom as the untouchable dom-raj of the Benares cremation grounds) singer named Rahga and his two dancing daughters Hamsl ("Goosie") and Nagalata ("Serpentina"). These last two quickly steal the show, enchanting the king with an open display of their feminine charms, which are described by a court rogue (a description which Stein leaves out of his translation):
serpent is said to dance with the yogin. And, at the end of her rise, it is the yogin's own sexual fluid which, carried upward through her body, is transformed into immortalizing nectar. As a conduit for the yogin's semen, the female kiindalinl may be likened to the female sexual organ: indeed, she is sometimes called dmrtbl, and the Dombl, as the tantrika's favorite sexual partner, was most prized for the transformative powers of her menstrual blood.17 For the same reason that there could be nothing more defiling to an orthodox Hindu than the menstrual blood of an outcaste woman, the heterodox tantrikas valued the same as the most powerful fluid in the universe. For the uninitiated, however, the stuff was dynamite, as Cakravarman quickly learns. Following the night of the big dance, he becomes the Dombis' sexual plaything. He makes them his queens, and they and their outcaste relatives take over the royal court, polluting the entire kingdom in the process. High offices are bestowed upon those who eat polluted leavings (ucchista) off the Dombis' plates,"* and Dom ministers proudly wear the girls' menses-stained undergarments over their courtly attire. Cakravarman, his mind totally gone, rapes a brahman woman and treacherously puts to death a number of his Damara allies. Shortly thereafter, Damaras set upon him one night in the royal latrine and flay his body as it lies upon the swelling breasts of his Dombl concubine.
O Lord! The music, as if enchanted by these two lovely dames, has become as alluring as a liquor poured into a crystal glass! It seems as if the moon, bewildered by the shining teeth of these singing girls, is passionately kissing the gleaming columns of the ivory hall! Seeing that we are speaking of her, one of them has shot a glance of smiling indignation our way. The one singing with lowered gaze and trembling earrings, who looks so beautiful, is passionately acting out the reverse (viparita) posture of love. There is more going on here than dirty dancing, especially if we look at this scene and what follows in the light of tantric imagery. First, the two dancing girls, daughters of the Dom Rariga, are Dornbis, the most prized of partners in ritualized tantric sex, sex in which the reverse viparita posture is the rule. Their names are revealing as well: as we have seen, in the subtle body, it is both a coiled serpent (the kundalint) and a goose (the hamsa) that rise from the level of the sexual organs up to the cranial vault to afford the practitioner immortality. In her rise through the yogic cakras, the kundalini
Now, we can read this account, with Stein, as an "amusing anecdote," or perhaps glimpse in it, once again, a piece of tantric power politics (on the part of the Tantrins?), the destruction of a king through a sort of loaded tantric initiation. Here, the closest parallel would be the Vampire Tales, in which the tantrika is the heavy—with the difference that here there is no vampire to save poor king Cakravarman. A final group of accounts, all of which are structurally similar, are much more straightforward, as they dramatize a king's tantric initiation, by a Saiva ascetic of the Nath order or one of its forerunners, in terms reminiscent of the Candakausika or even of the ancient royal consecration of kings by brahman priests. The most elaborate of these accounts is that of Deoraj, founder of the Rawal dynasty, which is found in the bardic chronicles of the Rawal kings of Jaisalmer.'9 Here, as we saw in a previous chapter, Deoraj (b. A.D. 836), the future founder of the Rawal dynasty, is visited by a Jogi named Rita who bestows upon him the title of Sidfdha] and then goes off, leaving him his rasa kumbha or elixir vessel. Deoraj uses the gold produced by this vessel to raise an army and the walls of a fortified city. Rita returns and exacts that Deoraj become his disciple and, as a token of his submis-
Chapter Ten
sion and fealty, adopt the external signs of his order. He places the earrings (mudra) in Deoraj's ears, the little horn (singnad) around his neck, and loincloth (langoti) about his loins. Attired in this way, Deoraj goes about exclaiming "alakh! alakh!" Then, having exacted that these sectarian rites of initiation should be continued to the latest posterity, Rita disappears. Two elements of this account are to be retained. The first is that we have returned here to the ancient brahmanic ideology in which the king is a junior partner in power to his priestly initiator, who grants him his royal power in exchange for a token of his submission in initiation. The second is that his priest, Rita, is a Jogi, a yogin, probably of the Pasupata order (or some other forerunner of the Nath sampradaya). He bears all the marks of these Saiva orders: his tattered cloak, great earrings (also worn by the Kapalika Bhairavacarya in the Harsacarita account), little horn, the words alakh! alakh! ("attributeless! attributeless!") are all particular to the Nath
Penetration, Perfectioti, and Immortality
palace to bring him a present (prasad) of yogurt, from his mother. When the boy returns, Gorakh instructs him to hold the yogurt out to him in his cupped hands. Gorakh then draws that yogurt into his mouth, attempts to spit it back out into PrthivTnarayan Sah's hand, and tells him to eat it.21 PrthivTnarayan Sah however opens his hands and lets the yogurt fall on his feet. Gorakh then explains to the boy that had he eaten his prasad, the yogurt he had spat out, he would have become a universal emperor. But because he has let the yogurt fall on his feet, he will only conquer the earth as far as his feet will carry him. PrthivTnarayan Sah's feet soon carry him to the Kathmandu Valley where, through a second intervention by Gorakh, his Gurkhas win a great battle and become the rulers of Nepal. The great guru's intercession is commemorated, down to the present day, on the Nepali one rupee coin, upon which is written, verso, "Long live Gorakhnath!"22
sampradaya.
Medieval and modern legend and history abound with accounts of just this sort of alliance—sealed through initiation—between a tantrika (sometimes identified as a Nath Siddha) and a fledgling prince. As recently as the early nineteenth century, just such a pact was struck between a Nath Siddha and the Marwar prince Man Singh;20 a number of accords of the same order were made between Nath Siddhas and princes, in earlier centuries, well to the north of Rajasthan, in Garhwal (Uttar Pradesh) and Nepal. In fact, nearly all of the exemplary Nath Siddhas of legend are born into princely families, before being saved—from rivals, enemies, evil stepmothers, death—by a powerful yogin, usually Gorakh, who then initiates him into that order. As we have seen, initiation involves the piercing of the ears with the great kundala or mudra earrings that are the hallmark of the Nath sect, the placing of the little horn, the giving of the mantra, etc. There is another feature of the Nath Siddhas' tantric kingmaking that should also be noted here. This is a facet of the initiation rite which, although it is evoked in only a few legendary accounts, plays a much more important role in instructions for tantric initiation (diksa) as such are found in a number of classic tantric texts. The most comprehensive mythologization of this ritual is found in a chronicle of the Gurkha (named after Gorakh for reasons that will be made clear) dynasty of Nepal. One day, young PrthivTnarayan Sah, who would later lead the Gurkhas in their successful conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1768, chances upon Gorakhnath, who is meditating in a cave. Gorakh sends PrthivTnarayan Sah back to his
This spitting incident is not unique to the biography of PrthivTnarayan Sah. Alberuni's eleventh-century account of India includes an episode from the career of the Mahasiddha alchemist Vyadi that is quite similar. Here, Vyadi has, at long last, discovered the alchemical elixir and is flying through the air over the royal capital of Ujjain. Looking below, he sees King Vikramaditya standing at the gate of his palace. "Open thy mouth for my saliva" he calls down to the king. The king instead steps out of the way and the saliva falls on the threshold, which is immediately transformed into gold.23 Similarly, Bappa Rawal's guru HarTta Rasi, having risen into the air, attempts to spit into his mouth in order to complete his initiation. Like PrthivTnarayan Sah and Vikramaditya, Bappa Rawal allows his guru's expectorate to fall at (or on) his feet, and thereby receives something less than the intended effects of his guru's gift.24 Yet another such account, concerning the site of Hinglaj DevT in Baluchistan, is all the more surprising, because it is reported by the Muslim "Jogis" of the Sind. Jogi Maula Baksh relates the story:25 One day Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, the Sind's great mystic poet, met Jogi Madan Vaniyo who taught him ablutions of the spirit and took him to the goddess Hinglaj. Shah saw the Jogis feed Nani Hinglaj milk that she promptly vomited out. Nani ignored him the first time, but the third time she obediently drank the milk. Taken aback by Shah's success, the Jogis decided that night that they would devour Shah so that his powers, as evinced by his success with Nani, would pass on to
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Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
them. Shah overheard their plan and prayed to God for help. So Shah was swallowed by the earth instead and the good earth brought him to the safe haven of Bhit where he started to preach mysticism.
sexual fluid), and "having pronounced 108 mantras, [says] 'put your mouth in my mouth."" 5 In the Hindu Sarada Tilaka, the guru is said to transfer, through the mouth of his initiate, "that which has oozed inside his mouth" (vidruvaktrantare), after which said fluid is returned back into the mouth of the guru.' 6 Elsewhere, the Yogakundali Upanisad describes the yogin's "pure phlegm, whose white color is that of the moon . . . [which] when churned by the breath and the energy of the kundalini, becomes a rich flow of nectar." i7 Initiation into the Saiva Aghori sect is effected when the guru places a drop of his semen upon the initiate's tongue.'" Finally, in a verse perhaps inspired by the KJnN,w the TA (29.127-32) prescribes the mouth-tomouth transfer of sexual fluids for the attainment of siddhis.M) In the light of this data, we may conclude that the yogurt that Gorakh "reverses" and offers to spit into prince Prthivinarayan Sah's mouth, the transmuting spittle that lands on king Vikramaditya's threshold and on Bappa Rawal's feet, the reverse sexual posture that the dancing Dombl girl (whose name evokes the kundalini serpent through which the transformations proper to yoga and initiation take place) adopts in her seduction of King Cakravarman—may all be read as so many thinly veiled accounts of initiations by penetration, in which a guru attempts to transform his disciple into a realized (siddha) being, by injecting him with sublimated semen.
The only way we can make sense of these accounts is by interpreting them in the light of a tantric initiation ritual that was current in the period in which the Nath Siddhas were enjoying their heyday in northern India. We now turn to this ritual.
2. Vedhamayi Diksa: Initiation by Penetration Four tenth- to fourteenth-century tantric sources—the Tantraloka26 of Abhinavagupta, the Kulaniava Tantra21 the Saradatilaka of Laksmanadesikendra,:,i and the "Sakta" Goraksa Samhita2"—describe an initiation known as vedhamayi diksa, "initiation having the form of penetration." This initiation basically consists of the penetration, by the guru's sakti, of the subtle body of the initiand. Abhinavagupta"1 states that initiation by penetration may take six forms, of which one is called binduvedha (penetration of "virile potency," but also, of a "drop," bindu, of semen). In all of these variant forms, the guru, having entered the body of his disciple (whose kundalini has been awakened) unites with that kundalini within the disciple's body and subsequent raises it from the disciple's lower abdomen up to his cranial vault. The form the guru takes as he courses through his disciple's body may be that of a drop (bindu) of seed or of speech. In many descriptions of this operation, the guru is said to exit the disciple's body through the mouth and thus return back into his own body through his own mouth." By means of this initiation, the guru reveals the supreme Siva to his disciple;'2 the disciple whose bonds have been cut thereby becomes "a manifest Siva."" What these various sources appear to be describing is a "procreative" transfer of yogic seed between guru and disciple, a transfer that is characterized, in binduvedha, by a powerful seminal flow, in both guru and disciple, that spreads through their bodies and rises to the cranial vault of both.54 In a Buddhist account of the Mahasiddha lineage of Nagarjuna, found in Nepal and edited by Giuseppe Tucci in 1930, a description of the Siddha initiation ritual climaxes when, the guru, having meditated on the heart of the disciple, transfers from his own mouth into the mouth of his disciple "that which is contained in the vajra vessel" (i.e., "transformed"
Let us, however, go deeper into this matter of the apparent fluid transfer that takes place within the context of the so-called initiation by penetration, an initiation which, as we have seen, has the power to transform a boy into a king and a disciple into a "second Siva." Here, the term vedhafnaj, "penetration," will guide us as we attempt to penetrate the plays of correspondences proper to Siddha alchemy and to navigate the labyrinthine internal landscapes of the subtle body. The noun vedha, derived from vidh, the weak form of the Vedic root vyadh, "pierce," makes its first appearance in the medical literature, where it has the sense of "puncturing, wounding, a wound." Vedha, with or without its -na suffix, retains this sense of piercing or penetration throughout the medieval traditions that concern us. In addition to these usages, vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan forms of these terms introduce a ba-/va- alternation, generating such terms as bedha and bedhana. These are in turn conflated, particularly in hathayogic sources, with the terms bheda and bhedana, nominalizations of the Sanskrit root bhid, "split, cleave, pierce." In addition to the use of this term for the form of initiation described in the literary sources we have passed in review, the term vedha[na] is also
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employed in the vocabulary of Hindu alchemy and hathayoga. In all three instances, an active agent penetrates and thereby fundamentally transforms its passive counterpart. As we will see, the dynamics of the processes designated by these three uses of the same term are quite identical. More than this, the texts which describe these various penetrations explicitly parallel or identify these processes or techniques with one another. I have already broached the matter of vedhamayi diksd, "initiation by penetration." Let us now return to the Kularnava Tantra, which, immediately following its treatment of this and other forms of initiation, makes the following statement: "Just as penetration by mercury brings about aurifaction (suvarnatdm) [in metals], so the soul, penetrated through initiation {diksd), attains Siva-hood (s'ivatvam)!'" This identification was a commonplace of medieval Indian thought, as evidenced in the echoes we find of this statement in a wide array of nonalchemical sources, ranging from the Buddhist Sddhanamdld to the Vlrasaiva Bdsava Purana to the TA and Pardparaprakds'ika of the Trika Kaula, to the Amanaska Yoga of Gorakhnath. 4: This direct comparison, even identification, of initiation by penetration with a form of alchemical penetration, through the metaphor of physical transmogrification (into gold/into Siva), leads us into the heart of the second field of application of the term vedha: Hindu alchemy.
3. Penetration, Transmutation, and Transubstantiation in Siddha Alchemy The Kularnava Tantra dates from the same period (tenth through twelfth centuries) as the RHT, in which we find one of the earliest uses of the term vedha[na] in the sense of "transmutation through penetration [by mercury]." As is common practice in the alchemical literature, the RHT lists vedha[na] as the seventeenth and penultimate samskdra. As we have seen, the preceding eight alchemical samskdras involve the progressive envelopment by—and absorption of a given metal or mineral—into mercury. At this point, a threshold of critical mass and energy is reached, which automatically triggers vedha[na], the "piercing" or transmutation of said metal by mercury, such that the mercury-metal amalgam is immediately transformed into silver or gold. Mercury that is capable of transmuting base metals into noble silver or gold may thereafter be taken internally. This is the eighteenth and final samskdra, known as s'arira-yoga, "body Work" or "transubstantiation." In this final operation, the alchemist will generally
3»5 Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
hold in his mouth a solid "pill" {gutikd) of mercury, which will gradually penetrate his body and so transmute it into an immortal golden, diamond, or perfected body. This transposition of vedhana, penetration/transmutation, from metallic to human bodies, is directly addressed, in the terms with which we are already familiar, in the eleventh-century RA: "As in metal, so in the body. Mercury ought always to be employed in this way. When it penetrates (pravis'an) a metal and the body, [mercury] behaves in an identical way. First test [mercury] on a metal, then use it in the body."43 The use of the term s'arira-yoga for the application of perfected, tested mercury to the body is not fortuitous here: in both alchemical and hathayogic sources, the complementarity of the two disciplines is stressed time and again. Whence the statement in the opening of the RA (1.18b): "Mercury and breath [control] are known as the Work in two parts."44 As already noted many times, the goal of the practitioner, in both Hindu alchemy and hathayoga, is the attainment of both supernatural powers and bodily immortality. Nowhere are these concrete goals identified more explicitly than in alchemical depictions of vedhana. Thus, the RA (14.25-36) states: A mercurial pill [gutikd] capable of transmuting one hundred times its mass of base metals into gold [s'ata-vedha], when held in the mouth for one month, yields a life span of 4,320,000 years. One thousandvedha mercury, held in the mouth for two months, permits one to lives as long as the sun, moon, and stars. Ten xhousznd-vedha mercury, held in the mouth for three months, yields a lifetime of Indra. One hundred thousand-iW/w mercury, held for four months, yields a lifetime of Brahma; one million-zW/w divine mercury, held for seven months, places one on an equal footing [pada] with Isvara. Smokesight-vedha mercury, held in the mouth for eight months, renders one Svayambhu Mahesvara. One becomes the creator, destroyer, and enjoyer [of the universe], a maker of curses and boons, omniscient, omnipotent, of subtle and immaculate beauty. Such a man acts at will, creates and destroys at will, moves at will, and himself becomes the universal body [Visvarupa] worshipped by all of the gods, including Brahma, Visnu, and Mahesvara. Progressions of this sort, in which perfected mercury's powers to transmute base metals into ever-increasing amounts of gold and transubstantiate the human body into ever-more exalted Siddha or divine bodies, are
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legion in the alchemical sources. Thus, for example, an adamantine pill, formed of a combination of mercury, gold, the "three fruits," the "three hot substances," and "rock water"45 and plunged in successive oil baths (sdranas), has the following effects on base metals and the human body. After one such oil bath, this pill, held in the mouth, yields a life span of a thousand years; after two oil baths, it transmutes ten thousand times its mass of base metals into gold and affords a life span of ten thousand years; after three, the figures reach one hundred thousand; after four, ten million (and the power of flight for the alchemist); after five, one hundred million. After six oil baths, this pill transmutes one billion times its mass in base metals into gold and affords the alchemist a life span of the same duration as the sun and moon and eternal force and virility. After a seventh operation, this pill is given the name of khecari (the "aviator"): "this was proclaimed by Bhairava himself." He who eats a grain of this each day for one month becomes a diamond-bodied Siddha, sporting according to his whim with the other heavenly hosts, and attains Sivahood.'*6 Progressions of a similar order are found in two sources, the one alchemical (RA) and the other hathayogic (Amanaska Yoga i .45-98), in which a measure called a pala is employed as a means for calibrating the siddhis realized by the practitioner. In the RA (18.56-60) account of this progression, the nature and quality of the siddhis realized by the alchemist vary according to the number of palas of mercury that has been calcinated in mica one consumes. Eating one pala*7 renders one invulnerable to disease; two palas produce an increase in semen; three palas confer heightened powers; eating four palas cures baldness; with five palas, all wrinkles disappear; six palas afford a telegraphic memory; seven palas destroy eye diseases; eight palas endow one with a bird's-eye view (tdrksyadrsti) and a life span and powers equal to those of the god Brahma; nine palas make one the equal of the gods; ten palas make one a second Siva.48 In the Amanaska Yoga discussion of what it calls "salvific" or "stellar yoga,"49 the length of time one holds one's breath (called the "time of absorption": laya-kala) determines the degree of success (siddhi) one realizes, in a mounting progression. Here, the term pala is used as a measure of time, rather than of mass.50 Laya for one full breath establishes the life force (prana) in the body; for four breaths, the replenishment of the seven bodily constituents (dhatus); for one pala, reduction of in and out breaths. When the breath is restrained for twelve minutes, the kundalini straightens; after ninety-six minutes, a trance state is reached in which one has a vision of the "drop of light" (tejobindu); after three hours, one's food intake and pro-
Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
duction of excrements are greatly reduced; after six hours, the light of one's soul shines forth; after twelve hours, the light of the ether principle (dkds'atattva) shines forth; after a day, one gains supernatural olfactory powers; after two days, the supernatural gustatory powers; after three days, "television" (duradarsana); after four days, the sense of touch at a distance (diirasparsana); after five days, the sense of hearing at a distance (durasravana);^ after six days, the arising of the mahabuddhi; after seven days, the mystic knowledge of the entire universe; after eight days, the cessation of all hunger and thirst; after nine days, supernatural speech (vdksiddhi); after ten days, visions of hidden wonders; after eleven days, mind travel; after twelve days, the power to move over the earth at will (bhucaratvam); after thirteen days, the power of flight (kbecaratvam); after fourteen days, the power to render oneself infinitesimally small anima); after sixteen days, the power to render oneself infinitely great (mahima); after eighteen days, infinite gravity (garima); after twenty days, the unbearable lightness of being (laghima); after twenty-two days, the attainment of all one desires (prapti); after twenty-four days, the fulfillment of all desires (prakamya); after twenty-six days, supremacy (is'itvd); after twenty-eight days, one bends the universe to one's will (vas'itvd);52 after a month, the dawning of release (moksa); after nine months, a diamond body and mastery over the element earth; after eighteen months, mastery over the element water; after three years, mastery over the element fire; after six years, mastery over the element air; after twelve years, mastery over the element ether. He who practices uninterrupted breath retention for twenty-four years gains dominion over the goddess Sakti and the entire universe and enjoys the siddhi of "Love's Body" (kamampa). Such a yogin, established in the mahdtattva," retains his integrity and inviolability even after the universal resorption (pralaya) of the gods Brahma, Visnu, and Siva. The pala measure constitutes what we may characterize as a middlerange case of the Hindu time-space continuum: the pala is at once a measure of time (24 seconds) and of mass (82.624 grams). This continuum is operative at the two endpoints of the scale as well. At the infinitesimal end of the spectrum is the para?nanu, "subatom," whose theoretical mass is approximately 0.00000017 grams,54 but which is also a "space of time," i.e., the time it takes for a beam of sunlight to travel across an atom having said mass. In its discussion of time and space, the Bhagavata Purdna joins the infinitesimal to the infinite: "The subatom [parama-anu] is indeed [a measure of] time, i.e., the time [it takes the sun] to pass through that which has the [spatial] measure of a subatom." A homologous case is the greatest
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indivisible measure of space, which is also the "supergreat" {paramo mahan) measure of time.55 Following the logic of this statement, a cosmic eon (kalpa) is the time it takes a theoretical light beam generated by the transcendent absolute (having the form of the sun, in the mundane world) to pass across the entire expanse of bounded space. The "two infinites" of Blaise Pascal, as well as the time-space continuum and light-years of modern astrophysics and Douglas Adams's "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" all appear to have been theoretically anticipated by medieval Indians, whose universe was at once spatial and temporal.56 There is yet another model for measuring time in the Hindu, and particularly the yogic, context. This is the unit of breath called a matra or pala" which, as we have seen in the context oilaya-kala, the "time of breath retention," deploys into life spans equivalent to the duration of the universe. Here, we encounter a direct link between breathing and the duration of life. Four "measures" {matra) of breath equal one pala (twenty-four seconds); sixty palas equal one ghatika (twenty-four minutes), and sixty ghatikas one day and night. Fifteen days and nights constitute a lunar fortnight, of which two make a human month. Six such months equal a solar semester {ayana), of which two make up a human year. One hundred such years are the allotted life span of a human being. Nearly every creature is allotted an optimal life span of one hundred years. However, in the case of the ancestors, one "year" is the equivalent of 30 human years (thus the ancestors live 3,000 human years); and a "year" of the gods 360 human years. Twelve thousand divine years equal a mahayuga, of which one thousand equal a day of Brahma—who, like the mayfly, lives but for a day; i.e., a "day of Brahma" is the equivalent of his hundred-year life span.58 A day of Brahma is the equivalent of a kalpa, a cosmic eon, of which one hundred constitute a mahakalpa, or great eon, a life span of Visnu, out of whose navel Brahma arises at the beginning of each kalpa. For the Saivas, however, a life span of Visnu is nothing more than an in breath and out breath of the supreme god Siva. In this perspective, all of time, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, is a continuum of breath. Extending one's breath is therefore tantamount to extending one's life span.5"
4. Cakra Piercing and Ear Piercing in Nath Siddha Practice Another conceptual model for effecting the yogin's return to and identification with the Absolute brings us back to the transformative dynamics of
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Penetration, Peffection, and bnmortality
penetration. According to the metaphysical teachings of Gorakhnath, all that exists in the universe, from the most inert inorganic matter to the abstract godhead, is ultimately composed of the same substance—i.e., the five elements.60 Sentient beings, and especially humans, consist of so many "overlays" of these elements, ranging from earth to ether. Yogic practice, like the ritual technique of bhutahiddhi, therefore consists of imploding lower elements into hierarchically superior elements until all has been absorbed into the empty space of the subtle ether. This vacuum of nothingness in the heart of being—Gorakhnath's child crying in the ether—is a "clearing" of pure potential out of which supernatural powers, immortality, and a divine or siddha body may emerge.61 This "immanentism," the notion that at the core of every being lies its perfect essence, is given an alchemical gloss in another of Gorakhnath's mystic verses: "Just as within every stone lies the indestructible touchstone, so within every metal there is gold."6' Of course, the prime technique for imploding the lower constituents of one's being into the higher is, in the hathayogic tradition, the piercing {vedha, bhedana) of the cakras, through breath control and retention. As noted in the laya-kala progression described in the Amanaska Yoga, retaining the breath for one pala reduces up and down breathing. Diaphragmatic retention follows, and after twelve minutes (i.e., thirty palas) the kundalinl awakens, straightens, and begins her rise through the cakras, piercing them as she mounts toward the cranial vault. An important technique to this yogic end, called mahavedha, the "great penetration," is described in the Goraksa Paddhati:6i "With one-pointed mind, the yogin should inhale and retain the subde breath within his body. Then he should halt the course of the breaths, through the use of the throat lock. Placing the two palms flat on the ground, he should slowly strike the ground with the buttocks. Thereupon the breath, overflowing the two outer channels, bursts into the medial channel .. . This . . . surely generates immortality . . . This is mahavedha, the practice of which confers the great siddhisV On a conceptual level, the piercing of the cakras effects a stadial resorption or implosion of the lower elements into their higher emanates. Thus, when the second cakra (the svadhisthana) is pierced, the element earth— whose support is the lowest, the muladhara cakra—becomes imploded into the element water, the second element on the hierarchy, and so on, until nothing remains but ether in the cranial vault. It is not a coincidence here that the term kha at once means "empty space," "ether," "the absolute," and "zero" in the Sanskrit language.64 The cranial vault, the locus of the ether—both the site at which Siddha techniques for penetration end and
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that at which mundane existence first begins, when the absolute first penetrates the human microcosm65—is the zero point at which the two infinities meet, the point at which "black holes" issue into "white holes."66 This is precisely the "end" of the RA 's process for the creation of the Alchemical Man, which was outlined in an earlier chapter: when all that remains of the practitioner is the fifth element, ether, in the cranial vault, he arises—out of the cauldron in which his lower being had been dissolved and imploded into its higher emanates—as a massive, powerful, perfected Siddha.67 Parallels of this sort, between the alchemical and hathayogic techniques of the Siddha alchemist, extend to the ability to transmute: the highest form of transmutation, s'abda-vedha, is effected when the perfected alchemist, holding a mercurial pill in his mouth, exhales over base metals. Elsewhere, the yogic and alchemical Siddha is capable of using his bodily secretions to "pierce" and transmute base metals into gold.6" Penetration is not, however, solely a matter of breath, or of the implosion of the hierarchized five elements. As we have already seen in the context of initiation by penetration, there is also a fluid component to this transformative process. Here, the technique of mahavedha just reviewed is but a particular instance of the more general phenomenon of penetration or piercing that occurs within the yogic body when the breath, energy, and seed of the yogin— embodied in the female kundalim serpent—pierce the six cakras. This piercing of the cakras—called cakra-vedhana or cakra-bkedana—is also a sexual penetration of sorts, albeit with sexual polarities reversed, given that it is a female kundalim who awakens, stiffens, rises, even rushes upwards towards the cranial vault, the cavity that is the place of the passive male Siva. As the kundalim pierces each of the cakras, great quantities of heat are produced, which refine and gradually transmute the seed that is the stuff of her body: it is this transmuted semen that becomes the nectar that immortalizes the yogin who holds it in his cranium. Just as in the alchemical case, in which the practitioner holds a pill of refined mercury in the mouth, so in the yogic case, in which his head is filled with nectar: it is refined, perfected semen (of the god Siva, of the initiating guru, or of the yogin himself) that transmutes his mortal, gross body into an immortal, perfected one. Here, vedha refers as well to the transformation of the practitioner himself. We have already seen that the alchemist, like the tantric initiate, becomes a second Siva. Similar claims are made for the "transmuted" yogin, especially in the mystic verses attributed to Gorakhnath and others of his sect. So Gorakh says, "Now that you've pierced [bedhya] the lotuses six, go and drink that nectar mix/ . . .
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Semen is yoga, semen is what pleases; semen averts the sixty-four diseases/ The rare dude who pierces semen's mystery, he's the creator, he's the divinity."69 Gorakhnath, the author of the hathayogic Goraksa Paddhati and the mystic bants just quoted, is also the purported author of the alchemical BhP, which in its colophon calls itself a portion of the Goraksa Samhita; in the Sakta work of the same name, the initiation of penetration is also described.70 We therefore find in three works attributed to this great medieval Siddha references to all three uses of the term vedhafna]—the alchemical, the yogic, and the tantric—I have been discussing here. This is also the same Gorakh who, in the Nepali royal chronicle we summarized earlier, initiated the young Prthivinarayan Sah by spitting yogurt he had "reversed" in his subtle yogic body into the young boy's hands. Elsewhere, in the legend of his own birth and initiation, Gorakh is portrayed as the first human to have had his ears pierced (or punched, or split, or bored: phat) by his guru, Matsyendranath. Armed with this knowledge, it becomes possible for us to reproduce the symbolic context that made initiation in the narratives I have reviewed the transformative act that it was. In a number of these accounts, a boy becomes transformed into a king when he is initiated by a Siddha who either spits in his mouth or bores his ears or both. In the first instance, as we have seen, the guru enters and thereby transforms his disciple's body through the initiation rite known as vedhamayidiksa, initiation by penetration. But in the latter practice as well, something is being penetrated or pierced. This is the thick cartilage of the initiate's ear. This practice of ear splitting, a hallmark of the Nath Siddhas, has also earned them the appellation of "Split-Eared Yogis," the Kanphata Yogis. As we saw, however, in Banabhatta's seventh-century description of the Kapalika Bhairavacarya, the kundala or mudra worn through the thick of the ear was an external sign of Saivite sectarian affiliation even before the emergence of the Nath Siddhas. What initiation by penetration and ear boring have in common is that both open up channels in the subtle body, channels which must be opened if the practitioner is to succeed in his hathayogic practice. When the guru enters into his disciple's body in the form of a drop of saliva, semen, or sound, it is he who first pierces (bhed) the disciple's six cakras, before exiting from the latter's mouth back into his own mouth. So too, ear boring, besides opening a hole in the disciple's ear, also opens, as if by synecdoche, a subtle channel inside the head of the initiate.71 Once open, this channel too becomes a conduit to yogic powers and bodily immortality. In certain
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sources, it is further maintained that the guru actually penetrates, puts his mouth in the mouth of his disciple, somewhere inside the latter's left inner ear, at the opening of the channel called the "conch" (sankhininadi).12 When we look closer, we find that the subtle body has at least ten "mouths" (mukhas: a better translation would be aperture or orifice), that the kundalini serpent has two mouths, and that mercury itself becomes possessed of a mouth when it reaches an optimum level of transmutation. This multitude of mouths gives rise to all manner of complication in descriptions of processes within the subtle body, as well as to all manner of variations on the initiation process, some of which, of an overtly sexual order, remind us of the perils of poor Cakravarman at the hands (or should we say mouths) of the Dombl temptresses Goosie and Serpentina.73 But so it always is with these Siddha and tantric traditions. It is precisely this simultaneous play upon multiple levels of correspondence that makes these systems work. Each instance of penetration recalls another analogous instance, such that initiation, transmutation, and yogic integration all become a single process; every mouth refers to other mouths. These parallel processes come to exert a cumulative effect as well, with one simultaneously catalyzing and being catalyzed by all the others. Thus, for example, the yogin who combines the internal piercing of his cakras with the practice of holding an all-penetrating mercurial pill in his mouth (gutika bandha) and/or the sexual penetration of vajroli mudra becomes capable of alchemically penetrating all matter with his bodily secretions, thereby transforming minerals to gold and boys to princes or human replicas of Siva. Once inside the system, the various permutations on the process are mutually reinforcing. The Siddha or tantric initiation rites behind the narratives that were passed in review in the first part of this chapter were the medieval cognates of the Vedic royal consecration of old. In the medieval cases, the institution of priesthood remains, with the Vedic sacrificial priest being replaced by a tantric guru. The ritual reiteration of the priesthood's seniority and superiority vis-a-vis royalty is also retained. However, instead of the rather tame procedure of tapping an unpunishable (adandya) king on the shoulder with the rod of punishment {danda), the tantric initiator actually renders himself the biological father of his royal disciple, using tantric techniques to transform the latter's mundane body into a perfected, tantric one and thereby afford him dominion over this world and worlds beyond. For the Siddha, transforming a boy into a king is, in such a situation, child's play.74
r-i Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
5. Kavi, Siddha, Vidyadhara What is the appearance of one who has transformed himself into an alchemical Siddha? As described in the RA (12.366-68), he is the darling of fair-eyed vixens, slender-waisted with a compact, rock-hard body, as inflamed as a rutting bull elephant, as alluring as Love himself. The beau of lustful women, his body is a bolt of lightning flashing amidst the storm clouds of his curling jet black hair. As immaculate as the chaplain of the gods (Brhaspati), he is an alchemical wizard (kavi) and wonder-worker. He moves with the imposing gait of a great bull; his voice is deep and mellifluous. Like the divine elephant Airavant, he surges ever forward into the world, indefatigable. Radiant as a lotus pond, he outlives even the sun, moon, and stars of this world. A consummate logician and expert in all the sciences, he is a protector of the precepts of virtuous men because he knows, by his power of inference, what is righteous and proper. The heroic [vira] equal of Visnu and Siva,75 he is as enduring as the sun, moon, and sea. A number of terms (siddha, kavi, vira) and allusions found in this passage summarize both the historical origins and the ultimate goals of the Siddha alchemist. The last of these, vira, is a reference to the broader tantric tradition within which the Siddha theoreticians often situated themselves. The tantric "hero" is a practitioner who, through his initiation, practice, and gnoseological transformation, has transcended the bounded, dualityridden world of lower creatures (pasus) of this world. The very same heterodox practices with which the tantric practitioner reaffirms his transcendence and absolute freedom—caste-free sexual intercourse, the consumption of forbidden power substances—are those which otherwise condemn the unwashed masses to hell.76 As we have noted, intercourse with Siddha maidens, yogi?iis, even goddesses, is a desideratum for the Siddha practitioner and a recurring theme in every tantric alchemical work.77 More specific to these Siddha traditions is the goal of becoming a kavi, a wizard. As indicated in the opening chapter of this book, the sense of the term, as it is employed here and in alchemical works, differs from the more broadly accepted usage of "poet." The Vedic kavis, of which the Asura chaplain Kavya Usanas was the paragon, were not only wordsmiths (poets) but also death-defying, wonder-working wizards. It is this sense of the term
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that is intended here and in a number of Siddha works that evoke the kavi. Here, it should also be recalled that the "old" supernatural power of rasarasayana was one that was to be wrested from the subterranean Asuras. This is precisely what the young Kaca did when he won the formula for immortality from Kavya Usanas, who was, by virtue of his knowledge of healing and incantations of immortality, the Asuras' greatest wizard. The Ayurvedic healers of Bengal continue to be called kavirajas down to the present day.78 This goal or supernatural power of kavi-hood, shared by alchemical and hathayogic sources alike, is evoked in the KjfnN, KCM, RA, Goraksa Sataka, KhV, and Siva Samhitd.7* The successful alchemist is a kavi because he, like the Asura Kavya Usanas (Usanas, son of a kavi) or the Vedic singer of hymns, is capable, through his mystic omniscience, to shape his own universal order, bend nature to his will, and thereby realize wealth, invincibility, and immortality for himself.8" The RA compares the purity of the perfected Siddha to that of Brhaspati, the chaplain of the gods and divine counterpart of Kavya Usanas, a comparison that leads us from the "subterranean" or "nocturnal" powers of the kavi to those more closely identified with the light-filled worlds of the gods and demigods. It is here that the notion of bodily transubstantiation, from human practitioner to divine Siddha or Vidyadhara, comes to the fore. Here, the intermingling, in the Siddha lists reviewed in chapter four, of gods, demigods, and perfected humans, is reflective of the essential transformation realized by the Siddha alchemist. By becoming an immortal, invincible "second Siva," he literally enters the ranks of the semidivine Siddhas and Vidyadharas, if not of the gods themselves. There is ample evidence for the fact that cults of Siddhas and Vidyadharas predated the emergence of those human practitioners and religious orders who called themselves "Siddhas."81 In essence, the genius of these orders and their authors was to appropriate for themselves these preexisting traditions and incorporate them into their own syntheses. This is transparently the case with Matsyendranath, revered as the Siddha founder of a number of tantric cults, whose KjfnN is replete with references to Siddhas both human and divine. It is to the latter that he clearly refers when he states that "the planets, serpents, gods, yoginis, and Siddhas, all of them worshipped, themselves worship the eight Mother Goddesses."82 Human Siddhas are evoked a few verses later, when Matsyendra speaks of the assembly (pankti) of gurus, Siddhas, and yoginis.™ The four lineage Siddhas (kula-siddhas) are semidivine intermediaries who have revealed the mystic doctrine to the world in the four cosmic ages: their worship, described in
3*5 Penetration, Peifection, and Immortality
the final verses of the work, was adapted into Kaula ritual.84 Of course, the revealer of this doctrine in the present age is none other than Macchanda/ Matsyendra himself, making him the ideal model for all humans who would raise themselves up to the level of divine Siddha.85 Matsyendra twice mentions Vidyadharls (the female counterpart of the Vidyadharas) in his KJnN; in both cases he describes techniques for attracting and sexually exciting Vidyadharls and other female demigods. His sole mention of the Vidyadharas places them in the company of a number of male demigods, all of whom the practitioner is to visualize within his body.86 I have already reviewed a number of cases in which the matter of becoming a Siddha or Vidyadhara, or gaining mastery over these aerial spirits, was broached in early Saiva literature. In the Candakaus'ika of Ksemlsvara, the final apotheosis of Hariscandra, superintended by the god Dharma in the form of a Kapalika alchemist, is effected through an aerial car, brought to him by the Vidyadharas.87 In Banabhatta's Harsacarita, the Pasupata Bhairavacarya's goal is to transform himself into the lord of the Vidyadharas.88 So too, a Saiva "Great Vow-Taker" seeks to become a Vidyadhara in the Kathdsaritsdgara tale of Devadatta the gambler.8" This theme, of transforming oneself into a Siddha or Vidyadhara, is also a standard fixture of the alchemical literature. So we read in the twelfthcentury RM that one who has succeeded in fully transmuting his body— by jumping into a cauldron of boiling oil, mercury, and other alchemical ingredients—swoons and then recovers to find himself transformed into the three-eyed, four-armed Gananatha (lord of Siva's host). The Siddhas and Vidyadharas come en masse to view the transformed alchemist, and together with these denizens of the atmospheric region he flies through the air and is brought before Mahesvara (Siva), whom he worships.'"' In the origin myth of sulfur, presented in the same source, the Goddess is depicted as sporting with Vidyadharls, Siddha maidens, and a host of other semidivine women.'" According to the MBhT, the practitioner who follows its instructions gains siddhis and becomes a "Siddha who is the manifest equal of Siva."92 So too, the Siva Samhitd, a relatively late Nath Siddha guide to hathayoga, ends with the promise that the yogin may see the (divine) Siddhas and gain control over the Vidyadharas through his practice.'" Finally, the AK concludes its description of the "lithe virgin on horseback" technique"4 for the extraction of mercury with the following statement: "Mercury is found in all of those places that the Siddhas and Vidyadharas caused it to fall [by using that technique].""5
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It is in the alchemical RA that we find the most extended references to the matter of becoming a Siddha. In its discussion of "revivifying water" (sanjivanijalam), it relates that the alchemist who has drunk three measures of this water swoons and then awakens to find himself transformed and possessed of supernatural powers. He is able to "see into cracks in the earth [to find buried treasure] throughout the seven underworlds [haunts of the Asuras]; he is invulnerable to the onslaughts of gods and antigods alike." After further treating this water with mercury, realgar, and the three noble metals, "he suddenly disappears [from human sight] and becomes the lord of the Vidyadharas, surrounded by a circle of Siddha maidens for a period of fourteen kalpas!"*6 The same work concludes its description of khecari jarana ("calcination of flying [mercury]") by stating that the alchemist who ingests said mercury by means of this technique is immediately uplifted into the presence of the gods, Siddhas, and Vidyadharas, with whom he flies through the air at will.97 The work concludes on a similar note:98 He mounts into an aerial car made of divine gold studded with divine gemstones and rubies and filled with flowered garlands and banners and the roar of conches and musical instruments. Thereupon, a divine maiden, a singer of nymphen melodies and an alluring dancer, decked out in divine finery and garlands—a lusty beauty and a veritable image of Love in a female form—comes to him and takes the consummate practitioner to dwell in the world of the Siddhas. Then, after having bathed, wined and dined him, and clothed him in divine finery, the love-starved Siddha maiden sports with him for hundreds and thousands of years. The passage and the entire work end on the statement, "When all the fixed and moving beings in the universe have been annihilated in that terrible flood [of universal dissolution], the Siddha is absorbed into the same place as are the gods."99 The place in question here is, according to the most widely held Hindu beliefs concerning the fate of the universe, one of the two highest "worlds" or "heavens" (tapoloka, and siddhaloka or brahmaloka), which together serve as a holding tank of sorts for liberated souls. Suspended high above the general conflagration, they are saved from universal dissolution and, most important, the necessity of reincarnation into a transmigrating body upon the reordering of the cosmic egg, by Brahma, at the beginning of the next cosmic age. Once one accedes to these sublime levels, one need never return.
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6. Mountains of Wisdom A number of tantric sources classify the Siddhas into three groups: gods, semidivine Vedic sages, and humans who have realized a perfected (siddha) body.100 In other words, a number of the Siddhas found in the lists reviewed in chapter four began their ongoing careers as gods, while others are humans who acceded to a divine station through their practice of Siddha alchemy. Nagarjuna, a Rasa Siddha who clearly belongs to the last of these three groups, nonetheless shows divine pretensions when he states in his RM that "in the perfection of rasa, I shall make the world devoid of poverty and disease.""" Here, rasayana, in both the medical and alchemical senses of the term, is the only means by which humans may enjoy the immortality that the gods, demigods, and denizens of the underworld possess by their very nature. This appears to be the intended sense of a passage from the venerable Caraka Samhita (6.1.78): "Like the ambrosia (amrta) of the immortal gods and the nectar (sudha) of the serpents, so the principle of rasayana was to the great seers of old . . . he who uses rasayana in the prescribed manner not only obtains long life on earth but also, upon death, betakes himself to that light-filled realm within which the divine sages dwell."102 There are thus three sorts of elixirs of immortality, the access to which depends upon one's ontological status; those humans, however, who make use of the elixir available to them can hope to accede, after death, to a level of existence normally reserved for a certain class of deities. This notion of an exclusive afterlife in the company of semidivine beings, already glimpsed in this medical source, becomes a central concern of the later Siddha traditions. This is the purport of the RA's final word on alchemy, which seems to imply that in order for the alchemist to fully join the ranks of the Siddhas and Wizards, he must physically enter into his alchemical apparatus. This is a principle also found in a number of Chinese alchemical sources—sources in the light of which this and a number of other elements of Hindu alchemical lore come to stand out in higher relief. First of all, transforming oneself into an immortal by entering into one's alchemical apparatus is a commonplace of Taoist alchemy. In the Chinese case, the apparatus in question, called hu-lu, was formed out of two superimposed spherical gourds, a configuration at once identified with the head and torso of the subtle body, a double mountain located to the far east or west of China, and an abode of the Immortals (hsien).m Entering into one's alchemical apparatus is, in these sources, somewhat less dramatic than the
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operation described in the RA: its results are, however, wholly as transformative as those promised in the Hindu alchemical tradition. Taoist alchemical sources dating from the first half of the first millennium A.D. are particularly rich in legends on this subject, one of which was reproduced in chapter eight, on the subject of a certain Che Ts'ouen. It will be recalled that the vessel this Taoist alchemist suspended from his roof beam, called hu or hu-lu, was at night transformed into Heaven and Earth. Che Ts'ouen, who passed his nights there, called himself "Heaven in a [Double] Gourd" (hu-fien); people called him the "Old Man of the Gourd." Following this he realized the Tao (and became an immortal).104 In the Chinese sources, these identifications—between a bicameral alchemical apparatus, a configuration within the subtle body, a double mountain, and an abode of the immortals—are made much more explicitly than they are in the Hindu sources reviewed to this point. To be sure, the Hindu use of the term vidyadhara, Wizard, applies equally to a bicameral apparatus, a hathayogic technique, and the mountain dwelling alchemists who mastered them. What appears to be lacking in the Hindu material is the explicit identification of these semidivine figures and alchemical apparatus with these sacred mountains themselves, an identification which the Taoists make with especial reference to two immortal abodes. These are the mountains H'un-lun and K'un-lun, located to the far east and west of China respectively. The names of both of these peaks are derived from the same root (hu) as the term for the double-chambered gourd of Taoist alchemy: more than this, both of these mythic mountains retain the shape of the alchemical apparatus: H'un-lun has the form of two superimposed spheres, while K'un-lun that of two superimposed cones joined at their apex. These mountains are, moreover, situated within the subtle body of the alchemist, in his lower abdomen and head, respectively. As such, they are further identified as the Gates or Wells of Earth (H'un-lun) and Heaven (K'un-lun).105 Now, the Hindus also know of at least one mythic double mountain: this is Meru, the pivot of the Hindu universe, which, located to the north of India, has the form of two cones, the one inverted and the other upright, joined at their tapered ends.'06 Like the Chinese Hun-lun, Meru has its microcosmic homologue as well: it is identified with the spinal column (called the meru-danda, "Meru rod") of the subtle body, along whose vertical axis the nectar of immortality is drawn upwards. General descriptions of Meru locate gods and demigods of the likes of the Vidyadharas and Siddhas on its slopes and describe its summit as an extensive plateau,
3*9 Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
hemmed in by a ring of peaks so as to have the form of a basin or saucer;107 the Candakaus'ika (4.34) states that this mountain abode of the Siddhas may be reached through alchemical practice. It is perhaps incorrect to state that the Hindus made no explicit identification between their alchemical wizards or immortals, their alchemical apparatus, and their sacred mountains. The Sanskrit term dhara, generated from the root dhr, means, as has already been noted, "bearer" or "recipient." Another sense of dhr, however, is "to support," a meaning that generates another reading of dhara: a mountain (dhara) is that which supports (dhr) the earth or the mineral riches within the earth. In this case, vidyadbara may be read as "Mountain of Wisdom," while the Vidyadharas, the Wizards, may be considered to be not only the denizens of such mountains, but also the mountains themselves. What we are suggesting here is that behind the medieval Indian cults of divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas as denizens of mountains there lay a more archaic cult of these mountains themselves as a group of demigods. A number of works have much to say on this subject. An important example is the great tantric opus entitled the Svacchanda Tantra, much of whose cosmology is adapted nearly verbatim by Abhinavagupta in his TA.'m Here, in an enumeration of the atmospheric levels located above the terrestrial disk and separated from one another by distances of either one hundred or five hundred yojatias, this source describes cloud masses (megha) (1) that strike down trees on earth with thunderbolts; (2) that cause rains of fishes, frogs, and turtles to fall; and (3) that cause disease-inducing poison rains to fall (and into which are born the subgroup of embodied beings called the Plagues; in this multitude dwell the divine ghouls who form Skanda's retinue, as well as the Obstructors, who are born of Siva himself). Still paraphrasing the Svacchanda Tantra, Abhinavagupta continues: Five hundred yojanas higher is [the abode of] the Wind [named] "Lightning-Streak." Here at [the level of] "Lightning-Streak" are stationed . . . the "lowest-level Vidyadharas." These are beings who, when in the [prior] form of human wizards (vidyapanruse) carried out cremation ground-related practices. When they died, that siddhi [rendered them] Siddhas, stationed in the midst of the "LightningStreak" wind . . . ]m Five hundred yojanas higher . . . there at Raivata itself are the primal Siddhas (adisiddhah) [named] Yellow Orpiment, Black Antimony, and Mercury Ash." 0
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This passage goes on to describe ever-higher levels, inhabited by superior (vis'esa) Vidyadharas who, together with the celestial musicians, sing the praises of Paramesvara, the highest god; and still higher levels in which the most elevated (uttama) Vidyadharas are stationed. We will, however, dwell for a moment upon the particular case of Raivata and the clearly alchemical siddhis and Siddhas with which it is associated. Concerning the latter, I first reproduce the SvT passage upon which Abhinavagupta based his description: "On Raivata are indeed stationed those great-souled Siddhas. Having undertaken the practices [dealing] in yellow orpiment, the black antimony [of invisibility], the ash [of transmutation], the shoes [of magical flight], the hairy skin [of the tiger, goat, or dog worn or carried by the Saiva "Vow-Taker" or renouncer], etc., these great-souled ones became Siddhas, having Love's body (kamariipinab)!'*" I lerc we can see that, whereas the SvT evokes a certain number of mineral preparations instrumentally—to explain that the Siddhas of Raivata are those beings who, while human, gained the siddhis of invisibility, transmutation, magical flight, etc., through the practices of alchemy and renunciation—Abhinavagupta transforms these alchemical staples into a group of demigods whom he terms the "primal Siddhas." Here we are reminded of the Siddhas named Fire, Sun, and Moon who, according to the Kubjikanitydhnikatilaka, aided Srmatha in founding the kula, "at the beginning of the Kali Yuga," at a site called Candrapuri." 2 In both cases, these founding Siddhas are nothing other than elements of the Siddha gnosis itself which, like the Nine Naths, are hypostasized into abstract deities. Homologous to this ambiguous treatment of the Siddhas, who are here portrayed as humans and here as atmospheric demigods, is that accorded to the Wizards. In these sources, it is clearly stated that the "lowest level of Vidyadharas" is composed of those beings who, when still human, had been Vidyapurusas ("men of occult wisdom") whose cremation-ground practices had won them an atmospheric station after death. 1 " It is to this level that such figures as Banabhatta's Bhairavacarya would have acceded in the medieval literature. These descriptions are for us proofs of what we have been arguing throughout this book: that the human practitioners of the Siddha disciplines of alchemy, hathayoga, and erotico-mystical ritual considered themselves to be divine or semidivine Siddhas in potentia and that beyond the supernatural powers and bodily immortality that were their immediate goals lay the higher end of apotheosis to the loftier realms of the Siddhas and Vidyadharas. This archaic component of their practice was the prime
33" Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
ground for their Siddha appellation, in spite of an increasing Saiva (among the Hindu Siddhas) influence that never ceased to diminish and dilute the Siddha coloring of their gnosis. So it is that we find quite nearly as many references to "becoming a second Siva" as to becoming an atmospheric Siddha or Vidyadhara; in certain sources, the issue is resolved by transforming those same semidivine Siddhas and Vidyadharas into so many members of Siva's celestial retinue. In an earlier chapter, I argued that certain mountaintops, lofty pivots between the worlds of the gods and demigods and the world of men, have been singled out since the medieval period as sites at which to realize the various siddhis that enabled one to become a Siddha. Among these were Srisailam, Kedarnath, Mount Abu, and Girnar. This brings us back to the passages just cited from the SvT and the TA which, in the midst of their descriptions of atmospheric levels located thousands of miles above the earth's surface (ayojana equals approximately nine miles), suddenly present the reader with a terrestrial toponym which they identify, precisely, with the alchemical "primal Siddhas" Yellow Orpiment, Black Collyrium, and Mercury Ash. This is the toponym Raivata which was in fact a medieval name for the cluster of peaks known today as Girnar, in the Junagadh district of Gujarat. In praise of this site, the Jain "Raivatacala Mahatmya" calls it the fifth of the twenty-one Jain siddhddris (Siddha mountains) and states that "[here] sages who have ceased to eat and who pass their days in devotion . . . worship Nemlnath. Here divine nymphs and numerous heavenly beings—Gandharvas, Siddhas, and Vidyadharas, etc.—always worship Nemlnath."" 4 A number of Puranas beginning with the ca. ninth-century Matsya Purana"s also devote long descriptions to the site, which they term Raivataka. Two to three centuries later than the Matsya, the Skanda Purana devotes fifteen chapters to the wonders this site, which it alternatively calls Raivata or Vastrapatha."6 We clearly appear to be in the presence, in this wide array of sources, of a direct identification of Girnar as both a terrestrial site to which human experts in the esoteric sciences come to perfect themselves through Siddha techniques and an atmospheric or celestial site at which they dwell in their definitively transformed state of semidivine Siddhas. This pedigree of Girnar goes back further still, mentioned as it is by the seventh-century Hsuan-tsang, who describes a meeting there with "rishis endued with spiritual faculties [siddhis]"'17 It is also present in earlier Hindu texts, but here by yet another name, this being Gomanta." 8 We find this early toponym for Girnar mentioned once in the Mahabharata,n9 in the context of the
Chapter Ten
episode of Jarasandha, a regicide king and very early devotee of RudraSiva, who hailed from the Kathiawad region of present-day Gujarat.120 A much more detailed description of the site is given in the ca. fifthcentury Harivamsa "appendix" to the epic, which also relates it to the figure of Jarasandha.121 While this appears to be no different from a great number of other praises of heavenly mountains, this text is important for two reasons: on the one hand, the mountain in question is Girnar; on the other, this is perhaps the earliest Hindu source to bring the Siddhas and Vidyadharas "down to earth" and to make them the inhabitants of a lofty peak rather than the atmospheric regions. "The [mountain] called Gomanta, a solitary heavenly peak surrounded by a group of [lesser] peaks, is difficult to scale, even by the Sky-goers . . . its two highest horns have the form of two shining gods . . . 122 The interior of this mountain is frequented by Siddhas, Caranas, and Raksasas, and the surface of the peak is ever thronged with hosts of Vidyadharas."123 The Girnar peak which the Jains identify as Neminath has long been known to Hindu pilgrims by the name of Dattatreya,124 the semidivine founder and leader of the Nine Naths of western Indian, especially Maharashtran tradition. Dattatreya is in fact one of a pair of rocky crags that dominate the formation of Girnar, the other being Gorakh: these twin peaks, having heights of 3,450 and 3,470 feet respectively, are by far the highest and most impressive features of the rim of mountains that form a basin some six miles in circumference. Girnar has furthermore constituted one of the most important centers of Nath Siddha activity in western India, as evidenced in references to it, from the fourteenth century onwards, in legends concerning their founders.125 In an earlier chapter I argued, on the subject of these twin peaks, that they were called "Gorakh" and "Dattatreya" not because they featured shrines to these Nath Siddhas but because they were these Siddhas, i.e., that the bedrock of the presence and veneration of "human" Nath Siddhas at Girnar were the semidivine Siddhas whose ranks the latter succeeded in joining through their practice. The semidivine Siddhas dwelling inside Gomanta (within the basin formed by the rim of peaks?) and the Vidyadharas dwelling on its surface (on the outer slopes of those peaks?) preceded the likes of the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Gorakh and Dattatreya, who replaced them, and thereby became the demigods identified with its two highest twin peaks. In this light, it is tantalizing to note that the Kularnava Tantra (6.66) lists Dattatreya and Raivataka in immediate succession as two of the ten gurus of the Kaula siddhaugha.
333 Penetration, Perfection, and Immortality
Data from other regions of the Indian subcontinent appear to support this argument. Gorakh, who is called a Vidyadhara in the "Song of Manik Candra" is depicted in the "Legend of Puran Bhagat" as flying through the air at the head of fifty-two hundred visible and invisible disciples.126 Popular tradition maintains that the founding Nath Siddhas are still living in the Himalayas, as the guardian spirits of the Himalayan peaks. In the mountainous Gulmi district of central Nepal, a nondescript "god of the summit" is named "Siddha."127 In the mountainous Chamba district of the Punjab, generally nameless "Siddhs" are worshipped, in the same fashion as serpents and minor goddesses, in rustic temples; an exception is Gugga Mundalikh Siddh, identified with an eleventh-century historical figure named Guga Chauhan and with the Nath Siddha known as Guru Guga or Guga Pir, whose shrine is located at Shalu in Himgari.128 As noted in chapter four, the "historical" Gorakhnath is said to have discovered a shrine to the Nepali (Gurkha) deity Gorakh, into whose service he devoted himself. Over time, this mountain godling and the human yogin became fused into a single figure: Gorakhnath, founder of the Nath sampradaya and the site of Gorakhpur.129 In the light of this evidence, we must conclude that such historical Siddhas as Gorakh, Dattatreya, and Nagarjuna, whose acts and lives defined the religious landscape of a certain Gupta and post-Gupta India, became fused in the Hindu imagination with certain classes of gods and demigods, in whose number the divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas must be counted; and that it was at such peaks as Girnar, in western India, the heartland of early Saivism, that such identifications first emerged.130 While we cannot say to what extent these figures were and are identified with the sacred peaks themselves, my reading of Vidyadhara as "Mountain of Wisdom" should not be entirely far-fetched, especially in the light of the Harivamsa description of Gomanta. This peak, which I have identified with Girnar, is said to be inhabited both inside and out by Siddhas and Vidyadharas. Like many sacred mountains, Girnar is a site riddled with caves, of which at least two are identified with Nath Siddhas (Bhartrhari and Dattatreya); and what is a mountain cave, if not the macrocosmic replica of the cranial vault of the meditating yogin, the tumulus (samadhi) in which deceased yogins are interred, or the upper chamber of an alchemical apparatus within which the alchemist transforms himself into the opus alchymicum? As in the Taoist case, the Mobius universe of the Siddhas is so constructed as to permit its practitioners at once to identify cosmic mountains with their own subtle bodies
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and to enter into those mountains to realize the final end of their practice, the transformation into the semidivine denizens of those peaks. So it is that these myriad allusions, found in a wide array of Saiva, Siddha, tantric, and Jain sources, are so many literary vestiges of an archaic cult of divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas who, like the immortals (hsien) of Taoism, came to be joined in their ranks by heroic humans (Pasupatas, Kapalikas, Nath Siddhas, and Rasa Siddhas) who, through their dangerous and difficult trials, transcended their human condition. This is the Siddha foundation of tantrism: the archaic goal of gaining power over divine Siddha and Vidyadhara wizards and nymphs funneled into the tantric cults of theyoginis, which were in turn internalized into the practices of hatha yoga and alchemy as practiced by superhuman Nath and Rasa Siddhas and the more refined and abstract ritual practices of "high" Tantra.
HP I L O G
UP:
The Siddha Legacy in Modern India "My dear chap, I ask you!" said Masood, as if it were my fault. Those sadhus would sometimes come to Dewas and bless the Palace, and demand a hundred rupees each. Malarao would speak as fair as he could and give each of them one rupee. They then cursed the Palace and returned to Ujjain.'
The medieval Siddhas of India were self-styled imitators of divine and semidivine Siddhas who, through their conjoined practice of alchemy, hatha yoga, and tantric ritual (erotico-mystical or "sublimated," when it took the form of worship of the divine Siddhas), sought to join the ranks of the latter at the end of their practice (sadhana) or at the end of their lives. Over the centuries, the cults of the divine Siddhas and Vidyadharas, denizens of the atmospheric regions or of lofty peaks, have gradually diminished and are today found only in remote mountain regions of the Indian subcontinent. In other parts of India, these demigods have been supplanted by or conflated with such historical figures as Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath, Nagarjuna, or Dattatreya, figures who self-consciously aligned themselves with the former, taking their names as honorary titles or indications of various degrees of realization in their mystic arts.' A case in point is "Gorakhnath" who, having discovered the shrine of the godling Gorkha (divinity of the Gurkhas of the Himalayan region of Gurkha in Nepal), took the name of Gorakhnath, i.e., "he whose Lord is Gorakh."5 Such a conceptual shift—from "shrine served by a holy man" to "shrine of the holy man" himself—was effected in the Indian popular imagination, and in the generation of legends that grew up around this composite figure, in the same way as such has occurred in Europe. A local godling, identified with a spring of healing waters or one or another geographic anomaly gradually becomes transformed into a "saint" whose relics are the source of the magic that cures the sick or drives away plagues.4 In India, the nocturnal sight of hermits' fires, tiny points of light illuminating the brooding silhouettes of dark mountains, would also have fueled an identification of the semidivine Siddhas with their human emulators. 335
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Today, the majority of those dark hillsides are crisscrossed by metaled roads, over which buses full of pilgrims and tourists travel. The hermits have withdrawn deeper into the mountains or have disappeared altogether from the sight of men. Their departure has left a void in the modern Indian soul, perhaps not unlike that which has marked the American soul since the disappearance of the frontier some one hundred years ago. Something fundamentally real, something whose mere existence has been a millennarian source of spiritual solace, has been lost or is in the process of being lost. How has twentieth-century India reacted to the "disenchantment of the world"?
i. Transmutation in the Twentieth Century
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ent that he could also produce gold by the same procedure, by merely substituting ammonium chloride for borax. Later on, at Birla's instigation, he produced gold in this way. He continued to make gold in this way, at the rate of three grams per week, to cover his laboratory and personal expenses. Marble plaques, in the Visvanath Temple on the campus of Benares Hindu University and at the Birla Temple in Delhi, bear witness to Shastri's alchemical feats and state that the gold he manufactured over time totaled seventy thousand rupees in value. I was told by another Banarsi Ayurvedic scholar, Siddhinandan Misra, that Shastri used up all his gold playing the horses and that he died of poisoning by persons attempting to extort his secrets from him.5 I was unable to corroborate either of these statements.
I have met Siddhas who claimed to be alchemists but who would not show me their powers. I met many more who claimed to know alchemists without ever being able to divulge to me their exact whereabouts. There was, however, a well-documented case of transmutation, carried out in 1940 by an Ayurvedic pharmacist in a Benares Hindu University laboratory before a group of scholars. One of the last surviving members of this group, Yadunandan Upadhyaya, gave me an account of the experiment at his Benares home-cum-Ayurvedic dispensary in the spring of 1984:
Similar accounts of alchemical aurifaction have continued to appear periodically in the Indian press. The 8 June 1968 issue of the Navabharat Times ran a story, out of Ahmedabad, concerning an Ayurvedic pharmacist named A. C. Acharya, who had produced pure gold from mercury in four days, at Jamnagar (Gujarat). This story was corroborated by Siddhinandan Misra, who added that the experiment was carried out under the eyes of ten goldsmiths, ten chemists, and six government ministers. Dbarm Vug's 7 September 1975 edition states that the "secret ingredient" used in these experiments was "perfected mercury" (siddhasuta).6
Krishna Pal Shastri, a vaidya from Jamnagar, in Gujarat, performed the experiment in the laboratory of Benares Hindu University chemistry professor Phaldevasahaya Varma, in the presence of nine or ten Ayurvedic scholars and practitioners and the great industrialist Birla. Shastri hollowed out a soap nut, which he filled with mercury, two or three grams of borax, and a grain of a secret powder. He sealed the nut with a paste of lime and molasses and put it inside a crucible, which he placed on a charcoal fire. He fanned the fire until the nut inside the crucible began to burn. When the smoke cleared, he split the nut open with an iron wedge. Inside was a metal that looked like silver. Half of this metal was taken by Professor Varma and the other half by Mr. Birla. Varma tested it at BHU and Birla at one of his firm's laboratories in Calcutta. In both cases, the metal tested out as pure silver, with only the spectroscopy showing a slight variation from that of natural silver. Sastri had informed those who were pres-
Even if authentic alchemists have become a scarce commodity in twentieth-century India, the Hindu alchemical tradition seems to have left its mark on the Indian psyche in a number of often-unexpected ways. One of these is a tendency to attribute a certain order of consciousness to metals. Such a tendency ought perhaps not to surprise us, if we understand tantric thought in the same way as does Sanjukta Gupta when she states that: ultimately the conscious bits of the universe, like stones, are also God and hence consciousness, but a consciousness that has decided to conceal itself (atmasamkoca). Here we come to the double concealment which God decides on; firstly, He conceals the fact that His true form is identical with the individual soul; and secondly He conceals His true nature as consciousness to manifest Himself as unconscious phenomena. The world of the Tantric, then, is ultimately all God, but it contains a vast range of things, from things as gross as stones to things as subtle as God.7
»8 Epilogue
A number of twentieth-century Indian scientists have been sympathetic to this viewpoint. In his renowned Autobiography ofa Yogi, Yogananda gives an account of the Bengali scientist Jagadis Bose, who demonstrated to him an apparatus he had invented in the 1930s:8 Graphs of my delicate apparatus have proved that trees possess a circulatory system; their sap movements correspond to the blood pressure of animal bodies . . . The more deeply we perceive, the more striking becomes the evidence that a uniform plan links every form in manifold Nature . . . I shall show you experiments on a piece of tin. The life-force in metals responds adversely or beneficially to stimuli. Ink markings will register the various reactions. [Yogananda then continues, in his own voice:] Deeply engrossed, I watched the graph that recorded the characteristic waves of atomic structure. When the professor applied chloroform to the tin, the vibratory writings stopped. They recommenced as the metal slowly regained its normal state. My companion dispensed a poisonous chemical. Simultaneously with the quivering end of the tin, the needle dramatically wrote in the chart a death notice. A similar body of assumptions appears to underlie the theories of T. R. Anantharaman, who was, when I interviewed him in December of 1984, the dean of the prestigious Engineering College at Benares Hindu University. In a lecture entitled "Transformations—Metallurgical and Mental," Professor Anantharaman proposes that the four states of human consciousness (matter, life, mind, and supermind) correspond to the four metallurgical phases (gas, liquid, single-phase solid, multiphase solid). Here, the three culminating stages of Patanjala yoga correspond to phase transformations (nucleation and growth) in the metallurgical solid phase. In such transformations, "embryos" or small nuclei are generated, which are capable of further growth and steady increase in size until transformation occurs. This process of nucleation is to be compared, in yogic practice, to the realization of samadhi. In the end, the transformations undergone by the meditating yogin are to be viewed as so many monotectoid transformations, effected on the level of human consciousness.9 On a more popular level, we find the pervasive notion in India that the eight metals (astadhatu) are intimately related to the movements and astrological effects of the nine celestial bodies (jiavagrabd). By wearing an eightmetal ring, one wards off the baneful influences of such dread planets as Saturn, while enhancing the salutory effects of the auspicious planets. Cer-
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tain sources identify the Nine Naths with the eight metals or nine planets; in an interview he granted me in 1984, Mangalraj Joshi, the royal astrologer to King Birendra of Nepal, identified the nine planets with the eight metals.10 Of greater and more wide-ranging impact than pseudoscientific theorizing of this order are certain effects the medieval Siddha traditions appear to have had—if only by their transformation or absence—on a number of medical notions and political strategies in late twentieth-century India. These are the subject of the next two sections of this chapter.
2. Impotence: The Ravages of Gupta Rog High in the snow-clad Himalayas, in a cave above Joshimath, lives a five hundred-year-old man whose eyebrows have grown down over his eyes. The four hundred-year-old Sundarnath Siddha, an expert in the alchemical arts living in the hills above Kathmandu, disappeared and reappeared at will before definitively disappearing in the 1970s." The alchemist Nagarjuna lived for eight hundred years before giving up his head and life at the request of a young prince. Gorakhnath, the yogic superman, has stood beside kings and heroes for millenia, abandoning one body for another at will. He and his brother Nath Siddhas, immortal guardians of the Himalayan peaks, are as old as the mountains themselves. In India, whose recorded traditions of the deeds of gods and humans are among the oldest on the planet, examplary humans have ever rivaled the gods in their longevity and power. Yet this is the same India upon whose sweltering plains "youngmen" are warned in "clinical literature" that they will "look old at the age of 25 [through] the horrors of the wastage of semen . . . Many youngmen have sex many times at night and thus waste this essence of life recklessly. With small production and heavy drainage, supply will exhaust soon and critical consequences will have to be faced."12 What connections can we draw between the grandeur and the squalor, between immortality in the highlands and misspent youth in the lowlands of India? A glance at Ayurvedic theories of digestion, metabolism, and the production of sexual fluids provides us with a key to this puzzle. The Upanisads inform us that humans are constantly being cooked by the fires of time; and as the myth of King Moon demonstrates, the cooking is never so fierce as when man sheds his seed, his very staff of life.This sentiment
34°
34"
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The Siddha Legacy in Modem India
is expressed in the beautiful poetry of Tayumanavar, a Tamil Saiva poet who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century:
process, is in constant danger of being burned up and entirely consumed in a fiery uterine ocean of female sexuality. The mythic ground for this cultural obsession, or for what Gananath Obeyesekere has termed cultural diseases involving the loss of bodily fluids, is the Vedic myth of the origin of royal consumption (rdjayaksma), in which the dissipation of semen in sexual intercourse results in the "death" of King Moon.' 8 Elsewhere, the yogic sources abound in admonitions to celibacy {urddhvaretas, "semen held upwards," in the lunar region of the cranial vault), sometimes comparing the vulva to a vampiress that drains a man of his life and virility.'" A "limit situation" of this attitude was stated with dramatic clarity by the very this-worldy Aghori Vimalananda just over a decade ago:
Ecstatically, you think, "sex is bliss." This embracing becomes more frequent, Growing to excess Like the waning moon, Your intellect becomes exhausted. And your body shrivels up Like a monkey's wrinkled skin. You grow old soon [ . . . ] When the dark Lord of Death comes, Who will protect you, O sinful mind? It would appear that the male sex drive puts males in an impossible bind, in which they find themselves in constant danger of losing their seed, a seed that is accumulated only very slowly and in minuscule quantities through the long process of digestion. According to Ayurvedic theory, this is a seven-step process, in which the food we eat is serially "burned" or refined into rasa (chyle), blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and finally, in men, semen (it becomes uterine blood or breast milk in women)." Here, it takes some twenty-eight days—a lunar month, and the same time it takes a woman's body to produce an ovum—for the food males ingest to become transformed into semen.14 Moreover, it requires a prodigious quantity of food to produce a single gram of semen.'5 Ayurvedic theories of conception' 6 —according to which male children are produced by a relative preponderance of semen to uterine blood at the moment of conception, while females are produced by an opposite ratio17—compound the perils of semen depletion. These medical notions have given rise, in modern India, to a male concern, if not obsession, with semen retention, in which the garnering and conservation of this, the end product of digestion and the most vital of bodily fluids, is quite nearly synonymous with the maintenance of good health and the prospects for long life. Male virility, indeed, male life expectancy, depends upon a careful conservation of this rare and precious vital fluid which, in addition to being depleted through the inexorable aging
You must have heard of women in the Place Pigalle in Paris who can pick up one-franc coins from tables with their vaginas; I have seen this with my own eyes. And I am told that in Laos and Vietnam, some bargirls can smoke cigarettes vaginally . . . A woman who knows Vajroli [here, vaginal suction] can "milk" an unsuspecting man of his semen with her suction. She can make him eject over and over again until there is nothing left to eject, which will sap him of all his ojas [human vital fluid, of which there only exist eight drops]. Her glands will be well benefited by this, at his expense.20 In a general sense, all women are, according to such popular wisdom, so many vampiresses whose mere presence, even as an image in the male imagination, is sufficient to drain a man of his seed: indeed, this is the cause of male nocturnal emissions (svapna dosa, the "sleep flaw"). The longterm effect of this nefarious influence is death: Hindu India holds widows implicitly guilty for the premature deaths of their husbands, whose very lives they are viewed as having consumed in their insatiable feminine passion.21 More than once I have been told by Indian men that my bachelorhood (which they have equated with celibacy) was a good thing, because thanks to it I would not die young. On a more immediate and visible level, the upshot of these concerns is that Indian males, finding themselves constantly beset with the cultural disease of gupta rog, the "secret ailment," have been pouring, in everincreasing numbers, into so-called Ayurvedic gupta rog clinics. These are clinics that treat male "sexual disorders," of which the prime symptom, judging from their advertising and literature on the subject, is the birth of daughters. Putra hogd, "you will have a son," is the promised cure.22 In a
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society in which male children bring wealth into a household (through dowry), while females take it out, chronic "fuel shortages" on the part of males can take on financially catastrophic proportions. As a result, the gupta rog clinics do a land-office business throughout India, as evinced in ubiquitous billboard advertising for their remedies. The economic pressures of a viciously hyperinflated dowry system, compounded with these pervasive notions concerning male and female sexuality, have only increased the perceived, indeed the real, need in India for the remedies sold by the gupta rog clinics (the term covers all manner of sexual disorder, including impotence, premature ejaculation, venereal disease, etc.). Within a conceptual context in which women are vampiresses and the loss of seed is tantamount to financial ruin if not death, psychological pressures arising from the urgency of producing male offspring cannot help but have a powerful negative impact on male sexual response. Can there be any outlet for this cultural disease?
3. Omnipotence: India's "Men in Saffron" For a large segment of the male Indian population, life is in some ways like a bomb with a short fuse, which none save the distant Siddhas and yogins have ever been capable of defusing before an otherwise inevitable explosion. It is in this way that Siddha longevity and male sexual disorders, seemingly situated at opposite poles of the Indian experience, may be viewed as intimately related in Indian thought. Indeed, it is a single millenarian symbol system that joins them together—a system that embraces Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy (rasayana), the "yoga of violent exertion" {hatha yoga), and elixir alchemy (dehavdda). In a sense, this ancient legacy has taken the form of a conundrum (unavoidable aging, loss of virility, death, all identified with failure to retain semen) for which a satisfactory solution is lacking. This false problem of semen depletion may be rooted in a deeper "paradigm depletion." Yet, a solution of sorts has been emerging in India of late, a solution that has the potential to trigger the fall of the "secular state" in the world's largest democracy. Here, I wish to go one step further, in the certain knowledge that some will find my speculations offensive, and hypothesize that the culturally determined form of impotence known as gupta rog is the somatization of a situation of sociopolitical powerlessness or, conversely, that the acceptance of certain forms of sociopolitical powerlessness is in some way related to
The Siddha Legacy in Modern India
the cultural disease of gupta rog. I have already suggested that this sexual disorder was "sociocultural" inasmuch as it assumed a cause-and-effect relationship between Ayurvedic and yogic notions of physiology and metabolism on the one hand and that form of "impotence" signaled by the birth of daughters as opposed to sons on the other. If it is the case that this disease has arisen out of a fundamental misunderstanding of medical and yogic notions of the digestive and reproductive processes, this does not mean that these venerable traditions have no treatments to offer for those suffering from such ailments. As has been noted, the bodily symptoms of the medical condition I have been discussing are treatable through celibacy, continence, and, should these fail, Ayurvedic therapy and remedies. What of the more pervasive ailment of sociopolitical impotence? Does India know of a cure for this ailment? A growing chorus of "men in saffron," armed with paradigmatic proofs for their treatment, are saying yes, and a growing army of young men are following them, in a quest to recover their social, political, and religious potency. In order to understand the nature of their proofs, we must return to certain of the legends of princes and Nath Siddhas recounted in the last chapter. The first of these is the legend of young prince Prthivinarayan Sah and the yogurt-spouting Gorakhnath. As we have seen, that legend described the empowerment, through tantric initiation, of an otherwise powerless figure, a petit prince without a kingdom. It is a commonplace of Nath Siddha legend to "Gorakh-ize" the acts of any powerful member of the sect, regardless of his name. So it is that we find that the Nath Siddha in Prthivinarayan Sah's life was in fact named Bhagavantnath, and that the young prince himself was the adult leader, in the mid-eighteenth century, of the diminutive kingdom of Gurkha, which was vying with no fewer than forty-five other kingdoms for control over western Nepal. In 1763, Bhagavantnath commended himself to the ambitious young prince, quickly became his chief strategist, and set about to vastly strengthening the prince's position by using his tantric charisma to negotiate a series of crucial matrimonial and military alliances between Gurkha and other of the forty-five kingdoms. In 1768, five years of strategy were crowned with success: an army led by Prthivinarayan Sah and Bhagavantnath, and composed of their western Nepali allies, conquered the kingdom of Kirtipur, in the Kathmandu Valley, inaugurating the reign of the Gurkha dynasty. A grateful Prthivinarayan Sah wished to reward Bhagavantnath by making him a vassal king; the Yogi refused temporal rule, but allowed that he
(44
Epilogue would he satisfied if he were given Vilas Kumarl, one of the king's daughters, in marriage. This was granted, and Bhagavantnath received, together with his new bride, a number of major land grants which served to truly solidify the place of the Nath Siddha order on the religio-political landscape of Nepal. With this, Bhagavantnath was elevated to the head of his order in Nepal. After his death in i 786 (eleven years after that of Prthivinarayan Sah), the Nath Siddhas continued to thrive under the Gurkhas— to the extent that they were frequently called upon by their kings to loan them money, which, thanks to their land revenues, they were able to do and for which they were repaid with interest.23 This is not the sole case in which the miraculous transformation of a powerless prince into a victorious king, mythically portrayed as issuing directly from the intervention of (and often initiation by) a Nath Siddha, turns out to be the result of efforts of a more mundane order. In the preceding chapter, I mentioned the case of Man Singh, the king of Marwar who gained his throne, in the first years of the nineteenth century, through the miraculous intervention of another Nath Siddha. According to legend, young prince Man Singh, whose army was under siege in the fortified city of Jalore by that of his evil cousin Bhlm Singh, was met one night by a mysterious Nath Siddha named Mastnath, who had suddenly materialized out of nowhere. Mastnath led Man Singh to a "hidden well" within the city walls, within which the prince found provisions enough to feed his starving army. Then, cryptically, Mastnath predicted that Man Singh's tormenter Bhlm Singh was not long for this world. Miraculously, Bhlm Singh died that very night.24 Colonel James Tod, who toured Rajasthan in the first decades of the nineteenth century and who actually met Man Singh, tells a slightly different story, based on the testimony of members of the royal household. Man Singh—who was quite demented by the time Tod met him—did indeed credit the intercession of the high priest of Marwar, whose name was Ayas Dev Nath or Deonath, for the twenty-fourth-hour death of his cousin. Others saw matters differently. In the words of Tod, "a dose of poison, it is said, was deemed a necessary adjunct to render efficacious the prayers of the pontiff." Man Singh's gratitude knew no limits. He offered Deonath a share of the throne, which this Nath Siddha accepted. Over the years that followed, Deonath himself and the Nath savipradaya in general became fantastically wealthy in the kingdom of Marwar, with Deonath's income amounting to one tenth of the revenues of the state. The Mahamandir, centerpiece of the
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The Siddha Legacy in Modem India
Nath Siddha presence in the kingdom, constructed at an expense of over fifty lakhs of rupees to the royal treasury, could house as many as twentyfive hundred persons.-'5 In Tod's words once again, "During the few years [that Deonath] held the keys of his master's conscience, which were conveniently employed to unlock the treasury, he erected no less than eightyfour temples .. . with monasteries adjoining them, for his well-fed l a z y . . . disciples." None but Man Singh was amused, however, and after a meteoric career, Deonath was gunned down in 1815.26 That these two cases were not aberrant is borne out by Peter van der Veer's provocative Gods on Earth,11 a recent study of the social, political, and economic role played by the Hindu religious orders in medieval and modern north India. As van der Veer demonstrates, the "Yogis," Nagas, and other ascetic orders, prior to the coming of the British and the railroad, used the annual pilgrimage circuit between Hardwar, Bengal, and Jagannath Puri (Orissa) as a trading network, lived in fortified temples, fought as mercenaries in the armies of the highest (at times Muslim) bidder, bankrolled kings and generals in their political conquests, and played an invaluable and extremely lucrative role in long-distance commerce.-'8 Indeed, the earliest religious group to take up arms after the Muslim conquest may have been the Nath Siddhas.-"' More than this, as Dirk Kolff has demonstrated in his carefully documented Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy,iu putting on the garb of an itinerant yogin seems to have been standard practice for all sorts of mercenaries and traders in precolonial India. Kolff moreover notes that the most commonly recurring time frame for such pseudoascetic peregrinations was a period of twelve years, a figure that, as we have seen, is standard for the completion of yogic sddhanas in the traditions under study.31 In certain cases, historical figures clad themselves in the guise of the yogic god Siva. So, for example the late thirteenth-century Rana of Mewar, Rana Samarsi, was known as the "Regent of Mahadeva": "a simple necklace of the seeds of the lotus adorned his neck; his hair was braided, and he [was] addressed as Jogindra, or chief of ascetics." n Alternatively, Siva himself was portrayed in the role of the yogin-cum-itinerant merchant. A Bhojpuri folk song says of the god that.-33 Mahadev has gone to the East to trade And four months are passing away. Gaura [sic] sits on a chair and watches the road, saying When will my ascetic [tapasi] come home?
34*
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The Siddha Legacy in Modern India
The principal enterprise of many of these itinerant ascetic groups— who were often indistinguishable from tribal confederations or trading cartels in the precolonial period—was the long-distance trade of horses and elephants, etc. Their this-worldly ambitions of wealth and power were, however, rudely brought to a halt by the advent of the British raj and the railroad. Political centralization under foreign rulers who had no use for tantric power brokers to underwrite their authority further undermined their financial, military, and spiritual ambitions. Stripped of their traditional sources of income, power, and prestige, these orders began to lose ground well before the end of the nineteenth century. Over the past hundred years, they have become increasingly sedentary,'4 such that even when the Nath Siddhas send out itinerant groups of ascetics (c&Wtd jhandts) from such centers as Gorakhpur, they have nothing to trade, save for songs glorifying their powerful forebears. Independence has not helped matters; and now, some fifty years into the India's democratic experiment, the Nath sampradaya appears to be on the verge of collapse. The Mahamandir, the centerpiece of Deonath's hegemony in Jodhpur, the capital city of old Marwar, has been converted into a public school, the last monk of the once powerful Gorakh Tilla monastery of Benares died over a decade ago, and the list goes on. Or does it? Since at least the 1920s, the monastery of Gorakhpur in northeastern Uttar Pradesh has been the "Rome" of Nathdom, and its mabant, its abbot, the "pope" of the sect. In 1969, Digvijaynath, this monastery's charismatic but rather ineffectual abbot, died and was replaced by a dynamic figure, already active in regional politics, who took the initiatory name of Avedyanath. When I visited the Gorakhpur monastery in the winter of 1985, the same Avedyanath was a most gracious host and helpful informant to me, giving me the run of the monastery and impressing me with his exceptional organizational abilities. Under Avedyanath's leadership, the monastery of Gorakhpur has been transformed into a force in the community and even the Gorakhpur district as a whole. But this is small change in comparison to what appears to be the national agenda of Avedyanath, if not of a much broader confederation of monastic leaders who have been flexing their political muscles of late in India. On 6 December 1992, a Hindu mob, composed to a great extent oikar sevaks, "servants of the cause"—marginalized young men in search of social, political, and religious potency—reduced the 450-year-old Babri mosque of Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) to rubble, claiming that it had been
built over the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama, whose temple the Muslims had torn down to build their mosque. This was anything but a spontaneous demonstration: it was a symbolic gesture and show of strength planned and executed under the leadership of a group known as the Visva Hindu Parisad (VHP), the Hindu World Council. This group, comprised exclusively of members of Hindu renunciant orders, the heirs to the Siddha and other sectarian movements of the Indian middle ages, are a resurgent nationalist Hinduism's "men in saffron." The political cousin of the VHP is the BJP, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party), which has, over the past years, appeared to be poised to replace India's secular democracy with a Hindu theocracy. While the national BJP leaders pedal a softer line, this is the outspoken agenda of the VHP, the organizational core of militant Hindu fundamentalism. Given its reputation as the birthplace of Rama, the seventh incarnation of the god Visnu, Ayodhya has long been a major religious center in northern India. Its location, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, places it just about 120 miles from Benares, the major Saiva religious center of north India, and 80 miles from Gorakhpur, the political epicenter of the Nath Siddha organization. Sitting on the nine-man VHP brain trust is Avedyanath, who is, in addition to serving as the leader of the Nath sampradaya at Gorakhpur, also the most powerful political figure in that city: he presently represents Gorakhpur district as its member of the Indian parliament in Delhi. Who is Avedyanath if not the Gorakhnath, the Bhagavantnath, the Deonath of late twentieth-century India? And if he is indeed nothing other than a modern power broker in a long line of Nath Siddha power brokers, what compunctions need he have to respect religious or political convention? In addition to his many sacred and secular functions and titles, Avedyanath is also the chairman of the Ram Janmabhumi Mukti Samiti, the Committee for the Liberation of the Birthplace of Rama.35 As anyone familiar with Hindu sectarian theology knows, this is highly ironic. For, whereas Rama, the "boy scout" of the Hindu pantheon, is the god whose adherents have historically constituted the "right wing" of Hindu religious belief and practice, the Nath Siddhas have, together with the tantrikas whose legends and initiatory ideology I have been treating in these pages, long figured among the most "left-handed" (vamacara) sects of all of Hinduism. Avedyanath and the VHP, even if they are championing the symbolically powerful cause of restoring a Hindu site to Hindu hands, are not, in the final analysis, fighting for issues. Rather, they are fighting for power, for
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The Siddba Legacy in Modem India
a sociopolitical power that is the macrocosmic homologue of the power the tantric practitioner gains over his bodily microcosm, and by extension over the entire universe, through his violent (the hatha in hatha yoga) antinomian practice.36 The goals of the tantric practitioner were and remain immortality and unalloyed power in the world. Once possessed of this power, the practitioner may use it to blast or bless, to raise untested boys to the throne (Bhagavantnath and Prthivinarayan Sah) or to curse entire cities to destruction (as Dharamnath did to Pattan).'" The men in saffron have not forgotten these goals, and they seem to be prepared to use certain tried-and-true methods from that past to realize them, in the firm knowledge that such will be mythologized into idealized accounts of transformative initiation rites which naive western orientalists will recount as "amusing anecdotes" to audiences across the world, thereby assuring them of their immortality. At times I think that a Hindu theocracy could not be more harmful to India than the cynical bureaucracy that the secular democracy has spawned over the past half century. Indeed, such a reversal would just be another epicycle in the broad historical sweep of what Jan Heesterman has termed as India's "inner conflict of tradition," an inner conflict in which two camps inexorably trade places in filling the roles of world maintainers and world renouncers. Here let us recall that Gandhi, political mastermind that he was, won independence for India by playing the role of world renouncer; once that independence was won, his Congress Party activists established themselves in the role of world maintainers. The secular Indian state, corrupted by its own power, seems to be no longer capable of fulfilling this dual role. Has the time then come, once more, for the world-renouncing men in saffron to try their hand at world maintenance? They certainly think so, because the this-worldly ideology of over a thousand years of tantrism tells them so. One need only think of the medieval myths of cooperation between kings and tantrikas: power and transcendence are within reach. Yet, should the men in saffron gain power, they will immediately find themselves faced with the same conundrum as has faced every world renouncer who went the world-maintenance route. As soon as the world renouncer becomes involved in the world, playing the role of royal chaplain, minister, or even surrogate king, he forfeits all claim to transcendence, to the very ground upon which he founded his prior authority. He becomes just another player in the power game, as Prthivinarayan Sah's Bhagavantnath perhaps foresaw, but Man Singh's Deonath never comprehended. Between the two extremes I have outlined lie those Siddhas whose ap-
proach to life has always featured not a small amount of carefree playfulness. It is this quality that has always impressed me the most among Nath Siddhas whom I have met: they always seem to be at play—playing with words, playing with other people's minds, playing games with the world. This is an attitude that many before me have noted. For Bernier, the Yogis were people "who scoff at everything, and whom nothing troubles,'"" while Oman provides turn-of-the-century photographs of Yogis in carefree and uninhibited repose in front of camera. Yogis whose easy and well-adjusted attitude he notes with a mixture of respect and suspicion.39 The ideal With Siddha is a god-man who plays with the entire universe, with the lives of the great and small alike, as he pleases. Secure in the knowledge of the identity of microcosm and macrocosm, of the immanence of the Absolute in every creature and stone, he takes the universe to be his plaything, with its every element (nectar and ashes, cloaks and bodies, earrings and the power of flight) interchangeable according to his whim. Like the holder of any sort of power, the Nath Siddha can use his knowledge for good or for evil; most I have known spend much of their time "getting high" in ways I evoked in chapter four.40 Their credo is perhaps best encapsulated in a passage from the hagiography of Mastnath: "Whose friend is a Yogi when he plays? It takes so little to please him. He doesn't give a thought to what's high or what's low. Whatever he wants to do, he just does it. .. The world's four cornerstones are [his] playground; when you're carefree you want for nothing. From a pauper to a king, from a king to a pauper, [he's] never bothered over the difference between the two."41
4. Bhandarinath and Me Soon after I began my fieldwork in India, in the spring of 1984, I met the droll and bearded Bhambhulnath, the kindly abbot of the Nath Siddha monastery at Hardwar, to whom I expressed my interest in meeting living alchemists. While he allowed that he didn't know any such persons, he suggested that I should go to Nepal, where the great Nath Siddha scholar Narharinath, abbot of the Caughera monastery, would be able to give me some pointers. It was October before I finally managed to have an audience with Narharinath, a most impressive figure, who told me he had heard rumors of alchemists living in the region of Mount Abu, in western Rajasthan. I was not to reach Abu until my next research tour of India, in the
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winter of 1993. There, Samundranath, the custodian of the Gorakhnath shrine at Oriya village, told me there were no such people at Abu. However, Inder Dan Detha, a Rajasthani bard (Caran) and scholar—and parttime resident of Acalgarh at Abu—whom I met in Jodhpur the next month, in March, told me of an encounter he had had with a certain Motinath, whom he had met at the Rathadunda monastery, in the Meerta City district of eastern Rajasthan, some twenty-five years earlier. Motinath, he said, had had a reputation as an alchemist and was someone who could tell me about the use of mercury and herbs as means to immortality. So it was that on a hot day in April, I found myself at Rathadunda talking to the two Naths—one very senile and the other very stoned—who appeared to constitute the entire population of that monastery. When I asked about Motinath, the younger of the two laughed and said, "He's outside, underneath the new samadhi.*1 He gave up his body twenty years ago." So much for my immortal alchemist, I thought. I was, however, intrigued by the Nath Siddha's aside that at the time he abandoned his body, at an age of about seventy-five, he still had the appearance of a twenty-five-yearold. I then asked whether there were any alchemists living in Rajasthan that he knew of, to which he responded with a loud guffaw. "Alchemists in Rajasthan? Rajasthan's a desert! There's no alchemists here, because there's no herbs here. You've gotta go to the mountains, up to Nepal, up to Hardwar, to find alchemists!" Hardwar was where I had begun my search, some nine years earlier. It seemed I had come full circle in a futile quest for something that no longer existed . . . One cool premonsoon morning in the Thamel neighborhood of Kathmandu, a month after I had left Rathadunda, I nearly ran over a Nath Siddha on my bicycle. There could be no doubt that he was a Nath: the crystal earrings in the thick of his ears were a dead giveaway. "Ades!" I cried out to him, as I tumbled down off my bike, "ades'.r'4i Without missing a beat, the Jogi's answer came: "Will you have a vision of the Lord of Serpents?" "A Sampela,"44 I thought, and more or less knowing what was to follow, said "Sure!" at which point he pulled a wicker basket out from beneath the folds of his capacious saffron tunic, opened the lid—and a cobra that was supposed to rear up and scare the dickens out of me didn't. Prodding and poking, the Sampela tried to coax his serpent into showing more signs of life but, poor guy, it was a cool morning and the snake was still snoozing. Seizing the moment, I tried to engage the Nath in some small talk. "What's your name? Where're you from?" "My name's Bhandarinath and I'm from Hardwar" he replied. The words of the laughing Nath of Ratha-
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The Siddha Legacy in Modeiii India
dunda came rushing back to me. I was in Nepal, talking to a Sampela who had come there from Hardwar. Had I hit the mother lode? Bhandarinath was typical in many ways. He was on the road most of the year, taking a side trip from the Himalayan high roads to the four dhams (Kedarnath, Badarlnath, Gahgotrl, and Yamunotrl) to visit Kathmandu this time. And by the way, could I give him some money? At this point, we entered into concerted negotiations. His main concern was money,45 and mine was information. So back and forth we went. "How much money you gonna give me? A hundred and one rupees would be nice," to which I replied, "Ever meet any alchemists?" I asked him if he knew any Nath Siddhas who ate herbs and mercury, and he allowed that they all used herbs to improve their quality of life. Then, quickly changing the subject, he told me to pick up a pinch of dirt from the side of the road on which we were standing. I did so, and noted that here, as in many parts of the valley, the soil was very sandy, with a high white mica content. "The seed of Prajapati46 and the sexual fluid of the Goddess," 47 1 thought. "I've got a handful of jizz!" "Now," said Bhandarinath with a theatrical flourish, "put the dirt in my hand and say 'Om jai Pasupatinath!'"48 He then returned the dirt to my hand and instructed me to repeat the mantra. This I did, at which point he told me to open my hand. There, together with the sand and the mica, were grains of unhusked rice! "Shades of Caurariginath,"49 I thought, "more sexual fluids!" I fell all over Bhandarinath, telling him how impressed I was at his piece of magic. Encouraged, he reached into the folds of his still-capacious saffron tunic and pulled out ajholi50 from which he produced a plastic bottle, out of which he spilled two pea-sized pellets into my hand. They appeared to be of mineral composition and were covered with vermilion. These, Bandarinath assured me, would bring me good health, good life, and success in all that I did, warning me that only I could benefit from their powers: they were nontransferable. Then he asked me to feed him, and I gave him 15 rupees. He said he'd done a lot of talking for 15 rupees, and that 101 was more like what he had in mind. I promised him more the next time I met him. He told me where he was staying, and I promised to come and see him in the coming days. As it turned out, that was the last I saw of Bhandarinath . . . I raced home on my bicycle, tapping my shirt pocket all the way to be sure that my alchemical (?) booty was still there. As soon as I arrived, I took out a pocketknife and—not without some trepidation—cut into one
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Epilogue of the two gutikas" Bandarinath had given me. T h e knife went through the pellet, but not without difficulty, since it was indeed of mineral composition. It was also, clearly, a man-made pill, the product of some chemical operation. M y eyes were filled with images of the alchemical Grail. I had passed the test! T h e Nath Siddhas on high, approving of my sincerity and diligence, had sent their man to me to deliver the mystic goods! O n e of the first things I did upon my return to the west was to take my gutikas to a laboratory for analysis." A week later, the results of the electron-microscopic tests came back. My sample was composed of an amalgam of mineral and vegetable matter. T h e minerals in question were sulfur (!), silver (!), silicon, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, and chlorine—but no mercury! Was the silver some base metal that had been "digested" and transmuted by mercury, which had left no trace of itself behind? W i t h o u t a guru, how could I ever know whether this was in fact the philosopher's stone I had cut in half and had fried under an electron microscope or just a medical tablet for chilblains? T h e second gutika was still intact. O u r research continues . . .
N O T E S
Preface i. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (London: Picador, 1975), p. 590. According to our best evidence, the vast majority of practitioners of tantric alchemy and hatha yoga have always been males. So it is that I employ the masculine pronoun he, rather than she or s/he when referring to such practitioners. 2. Cf. the akam genre of classical Tamil love poetry, whose "five landscapes" are discussed in A. K. Ramanujan, The Inner Landscape: Love Poemsfrom a Classical Tamil Anthology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), pp. 105-8. 3. Sudhir Kakar, The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978); Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovay of Self under Colonialism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983). Given that many of the interpretive connections made between les mots et les choses in this book are my own, some may be moved to turn their analytical lights on my own psychological profile as well. 4. La poetique de I'espace (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1974). A recent western study of an eastern tradition, which I feel to be most respectful of the phenomenological approach, a book which moreover devotes many of its pages to charting mystic landscapes, is Norman Girardot's admirable Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). 5. Even if, as Gadamer and others have demonstrated, such is patently impossible: one always comes to a text with a forejudgment of its meaning. This includes, for the alchemical portion of the books, the models of the modern science of chemistry. Many are the historians who have treated tantric alchemy as a protochemistry or iatrochemistry and who have, working from this methodological assumption, projected the writings of the alchemical tradition upon a modern chemical grid. Such attempts are, I believe, tentative at best, given our uncertainty of the modern equivalents of medieval (and often local) terminology. This is especially the case with botanical names, in which the sources abound. Similarly, modern interpretations of the subtle body of hatha yoga which would see in the medieval texts proofs 353
)54 Notes to Chapter One for the advanced state of Indian knowledge of physiology and psychology force the textual data into impossible and highly prejudicial directions. 6. On the theological uses of anagogy, as a complication of analogy and allegory, in the medieval west, see Marie-Dominique Chenu, Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century, tr. and ed. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969; reprint Chicago: Midway Books, 1979), pp. 123-24. 7. Symbolic language is employed with such great success in these traditions because the name of a thing bears the efficacity of a given object: Jean Filliozat, "Taoi'sme et yoga," Journal Asiatique 257 (1969): 63. 8. Douglas Renfrew Brooks, The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 209. 9. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon" (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. xi. 10. RRA 3.nb-i2a: na kramena vina sastram na sastrena vina kramah/sastram kramayutam jnatva karoti sa siddhibhak//. Cf. BhP 3.96; 4139; 9.14015-1413; and RRS 6.2. 11. Mircea Eliade, Forgerons et alchimistes, 2d rev. ed. (Paris: Flammarion, 1977); idem, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2d ed., tr. Willard R. Trask (Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen, 1973). 12. "Why Gurus Are Heavy," Numen 33 (1984)40-73. Chapter One 1. Reproduced with translation and notes in B. N. Goswamy and J. S. Grewal, The Mughals and the Jogis ofjakhbar: Some Madad-i-Ma'ash and Other Documents (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1967), pp. 120-24. Jakhbar monastery is located in the Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. 2. The root tan is a cognate of the English tension and tensile, in which the senses of stretching and weaving are also present. On tantra as ritual framework, see Brian K. Smith, Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion (Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 126, citing Asvalayana Srauta Sutra 1.1.3. 3. In order to avoid confusion between Tantra as written work and tantra as religious phenomenon, I follow general modern usage and refer to the latter as "tantrism." I further adjectivize "tantra" into "tantric" to speak, for example, of tantric ritual. I often refer to tantric practitioners as tantrikas, following Sanskrit usage. 4. This and all the other terms discussed here are generated from the verbal root sddh/sadh (weak form sidh), which means "to realize, succeed." 5. On the uses of this appellation, see below chap. 4, nn. 112-14. 6. To these groups we might also add the Burmese Zawgyis (= Yogis) or Weikzas
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Notes to Chapter One (= Vidya[purusas?]), a group of more or less suicidal mercury-drinking Theravada Buddhist monks: Patrick Pranke, "On Becoming a Buddhist Wizard," in Don Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 343-58; Maung Htin Aung, Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism (London: Oxford University Press, 1962; reprint Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978), pp. 41-50; Melford Spiro, Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), pp. 163-71; and Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in Ancient China, 6 vols. in 17 tomes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954-88), vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), "Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey, from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin," p. 166. 7. They are also called Nath Yogis, the Ndth Sampraddya, Kanphata ("Split Eared") Yogis, Jogis, and Gorakhnathis in modern northern India. 8. Most fully initiated members of the Nath Siddha order are given names, upon initiation, that end in the suffix -nath. Throughout this book, however, I often shorten the names of these figures, and call Gorakhnath "Gorakh," Matsyendranath "Matsyendra," etc. Furthermore, in those cases in which I retain the suffix, I generally transliterate it as -nath, following modern usage, rather than -natha, the Sanskritic ending. Only in those cases in which I am referring to a given Nath Siddha as the author of a Sanskrit-language work do I retain the -natha suffix (as in "the Rasaratnakara of Niryanatha"). 9. On the overlap between the terms tantra and sakta (applied to those sects whose immediate object of devotion was the Goddess, Sakti), see HT, pp. 5-7. Most Hindu tantric sects were in fact Sakta-Saiva, worshipping the Goddess as a more accessible form of Siva than the god himself. 10. For the hundreds of references to the semidivine Siddhas and Vidyadharas in Somadeva's monumental 1 ith c. Kathdsaritsdgara, see the index to Ocean, vol. 10, pp. 302, 351 [s.v. "Siddhas, independent superhumans" and "Vidyadharas, independent superhumans"]. u . So, for example, according to a Bengali recension of the Ramdyana, the paradise land of Uttarakuru was reached by crossing a river called Sailoda ("Rock Water"), whose touch turns men into stone. On either bank of that river grow reeds called kichaka, which carry Siddhas to the opposite bank and back. This is a country where the Siddhas live together with divine nymphs in forests whose trees and flowers, composed of precious stones, exude a miraculous resin that is nothing other than the nectar of immortality itself. On this, see Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 12 vols., ed. James Hastings (New York: Scribner's, 1908), s.v. "Abode of the Blest (Hindu)," by H. Jacobi. On "rock-water," see below, chap. 4, n. 189. 12. See below, chap. 10, nn. 82-85.
357
Notes to Chapter One 13. Parasuramakalpasutra 4.10 (ed. A. M. Sastri and S. Y. Dave, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 22 [Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1950], p. 149). Significant here is the redundancy in the term employed for the second category of Siddhas, mediating between the divine (divya) and the human (manava): these are the perfected (siddha) Siddhas. The Lalita Sahasranama (cited in Bagchi, introduction to Kaulajnananirnaya, p. 20) delineates the same divisions. The earliest enumeration of the three oghas may be that of the Kulamiava Tantra (6.63-68), which divides the founding Kaula gurus along these lines {Kularnava Tantra, ed. Taranatha Vidyaratna with an introduction by Arthur Avalon [John Woodroffe] [Madras: Ganesh and Company, 1965; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975]): see below, chap. 4, n. 62. The Tantraraja Tantra (2.2-5) divides a group of nine Nathas (identified with bodily orifices) into three groups of the same three "streams": in John Woodroffe, Tantraraja Tantra: A Short Analysis, 3d ed. (Madras: Ganesh and Co, 1971), p. 19. Janardana Pandeya, in his introduction (p. ja) to the second volume of his edition of the Goraksa Samhita, 2 vols. (Sarasvatibhavana Granthamala, vols. n o , i n [Benares: Sampurnananda Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya, 1976, 1977]), divides certain of the Rasa Siddhas into these three categories. Four of the eight directions in the Kaula "Circle of Siddhas" (Siddha Cakra) are assigned to the Siddhas (south) and the Siddhaugha (west), Manavaugha (northwest), and Divyaugha (southwest): Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, The Cation of the Saivagama and the Kubjika Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1988), p. 81. See also ibid., p. 90, on the three oghas in the Cincinimatasarasamucchaya, a text of the Western Transmission. 14. Atharva Veda 1.4.4; 3.31.10; 10.2.17; and 19.53.1. Rasa and the waters are further identified with notion of "healing remedy" (bhesaja), which becomes the foundation of traditional Indian medicine {ayurveda) and elixir therapy (rasayana). See below, chap. 7, sec. 1. 15. The foundational works of Indian medicine (Ayurveda), the Caraka and Susruta Samhitas, date from this period: see below, chap. 2, n. 15. See bibliography for editions. 16. The earliest excavated Siva linga is the Gudimallam image from Andhra Pradesh. On its dating, see Gritli v. Mitterwallner, "Evolution of the Linga" (who dates the image to the first century B.C.) and Doris Meth Srinivasan, "Significance and Scope of Pre-Kusana Saivite Iconography" (who dates it to the fourth to third centuries B.C), both in Michael Meister, ed., Discourses on Siva: Proceedings ofa Symposium on the Nature of Religious Imagety (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), pp. 18-19, 34> a n d plate 18. 17. Alexis Sanderson, "Purity and power among the Brahmins of Kashmir," in The Category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy, History, ed. Michael Carrithers, Steven Collins, and Steven Lukes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985),
Notes to Chapter One p. 199. The perspective of all Hindu tantric texts of which I am aware is that of the male practitioner. Miranda Shaw {Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994]) has recently advanced the theory that it is the female practitioner's perspective that originally predominated in Buddhist tantric practice. While I find her arguments improbable, I leave it to my colleagues in Buddhist studies to confirm or disprove her hypothesis. 18. For further discussion, see below, chap. 5, sec. 2. 19. Whence the maxim "privately a sakta, outwardly a s'aiva, and a vaisnava in court; bearing various outward appearances, the followers of the kula-system spread over the earth": Yoni Tantra 4.20, cited in The Yonitantra, critically edited with an introduction byj- A. Schoterman (Delhi: Manohar, 1980), p. 16. 20. This relationship was first charted in the Samkhya Karikas (39, 42) and commentaries. For a discussion, see Lakshmi Kapani, La notion de samskara, 2 vols. (Paris: De Boccard, 1991, 1993), vol. 2, pp. 422-28. 2 1. For further discussion of the origins and history of hatha yoga, see below, chap. 5, nn. 83-92, and chap. 8, sec. 2a. 22. RA 17.165a. 23. Whereas Siva is the name that takes precedence over all other names (Mahadeva, Bhairava, etc.) for this male divinity, there is no such order of precedence for the Goddess's many names (Durga, ParvatI, Sakti, Candl, Kali, Devi, etc.). I therefore generally refer to her as the Goddess (which is also a literal translation of the name Devi). 24. Bhudeb Mookerji, Rasa-jala-nidhi or Ocean of Indian Chemistry and Alchemy, 5 vols. (Calcutta: K. C. Neogi, 1926-38), vol. 1, p. xiv. 25. RA 1.19. For variant readings, from other alchemical sources, see below, chap. 5, n. 161, and chap. 9, nn. 54-55. 26. Satapatha Brahmana 7.4.1.15. The all-absorbing capacities of mercury are those of any element at the summit (although it is more accurate to say the center) of a Hindu hierarchy (on this see David N. Gellner, Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and its Hierarchy of Ritual [New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1992], pp. 45-48). Concomitant to this ability is also the inherent power of expansivity, the power to become all-encompassing. This is precisely the nature of brahman, the Absolute of Vedanta metaphysics: the verbal root of brahman is brh, "to magically expand." This is what mercury does when it transforms millions of times its own mass of base metals into gold. 27. The two important modern exceptions to this rule are the Sri Vidya tradition of Tamil Nadu and the tantric form of Hinduism that continues to predominate in Nepal. 28. See below, chap. 10, sec. 1, and chap. 11, sec. 3.
iS*
»9
Notes to Chapter One
Notes to Chapter One
29. This scorn and mistrust carries down to nineteenth-century Britain, in which, according to the ethnographer H. A. Rose (A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes ofthe Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province, 3 vols. [Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1911-19], vol. 2, p. 407), certain elements of the Rawal branch of the Nath Siddhas had made their way to Europe, where they were notorious purveyors of quack medicines and cures! On the modern-day Indian confusion between the magicians and tantrikas, see Lee Siegel, Net ofMagic: Wonders and Deceptions in India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). ^o. Joseph Needham et al. Science and Civilisation in China vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980): "Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention—Apparatus, Theories and Gifts," pp. 497-98. 31. Francois Bernier's Voyages were originally published in Amsterdam, in two volumes, in 1699, by David-Paul Marret. The present passage is translated from a modern edition of the work, Voyage dans les Etats dn Grand Mogol, with an introduction by France Bhattacharya (Paris: Fayard, 1981), p. 245. 32. RVj.59.12. Cf. .RF3.3.7; 9.100.1; 2.38.5; 7.90.6; Atharva Veda 18.3.62; Satapatha Brahmana 2.6.1.12; and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), p. 20. 33. RV 4.26-27. For Indo-European and ancient Near Eastern parallels, see David M. Knipe, "The Heroic Theft: Myths from Rgveda IV and the Ancient Near East," History of Religions 6 (1967): 328-60. 34. Charles Malamoud, "Le corps contractuel des dieux: remarques sur le rite vedique du taniinaptra" in Cuire le monde, p. 238. 35. Charles Malamoud, "Les dieux n'ont pas d'ombre: remarques sur la langue secrete des dieux dans l'lnde ancien," in Cuire le monde, p. 250. On the brahmanic definition of sacrifice, see idem., "Cuire le monde," in ibid., p. 47, citing Apastambha Yajna Paribhasa Sutra 1 and Katyayana Srauta Sfitra 1.2.1. 36. Satapatha Brahmana 10.1.5.4, with the commentary of Sayana who states that one hundred years is how long amna keeps the gods immortal! Cf. RV 10.161.3b; Atharva Veda 2.29.2. 37. Charles Malamoud, "La theologie de la dette dans le brahmanisme," in Cuire le monde, pp. 125-27. 38. Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "mortgage." 39. RV8.48.3a, 4b, 12a, translated in Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981), pp. 134-35. 40. Satapatha Brahmana 9.5.1.7-8,11. 41. RV9.86.39; 10.107.2. Later, the mediating "drop" is dropped, and the iden-
tity of (King) Soma and moon is made: Satapatha Brahmana 10.4.2.1; 11.2.5.3. ^ e e below, chap. 2, sec. 2 and 4, and chap. 7, n. 2. 42. Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.2.4. 43. Satapatha Brahmana 6.2.2.6. 44. RV 1.23.19a; 10.137.6; Atharva Veda 1.4.4. See also Kenneth Zysk, Religious Healing in the Veda, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 75, part 7 (Philadelphia: The Society, 1985), pp. 90, 92. 45. See below, chap. 2, n. 1. 46. On this verse, see Louis Renou, "Etudes vediques," Journal Asiatique 243 (1955), p. 437, n. 2. CA. Jaiminiya Brahmana 3.335; and Kathaka Samhita 8.5 and 12.13, discussed in Stephanie W Jamison, The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 191-93. These homologizations are assumed by the Ramayana, in its account of the birth of Skanda: see below chap. 7, sec. 2. 47. Yajur Veda 7.4.1.10. 48. Prdna, breath or "life force" is further identified with the soul (dtman), a term etymologically linked to the German atmen sich and the Latin animus. It may further be equated with "spirit," which is present in "re-spir-ation." Breath is further identified with the universal self or soul, brahman, in Kausitaki Upanisad 2.1. 49. Zysk, Religious Healing, pp. 8, 241. Cf. Louis Renou, Etudes vediques et pan ineennes, 17 vols. (Paris: de Boccard, 1955-69), vol. 2, p. 66, note (quoted in Andre Padoux, Vac: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras [Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1989], p. 6) "In fact, the creation of the cosmos is similar to that of a work of art, either being the kavi's deed." An equally important link between the Atharva Veda and the medical and alchemical traditions lies in one of the terms employed by the former to designate the physician. The image of the kavi, the inspired poet of the Veda, stands behind both the Ayurvedic physician (called kavi-rdja in Bengal) and the alchemical wizard (kavi) who ultimately creates his own universe. See below, chap. 9, nn. 105-6 and chap. 10, nn. 78-80. 50. Surendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), vol. 2, p. 284 and n. 1. According to the Taittiriya Samhita (6.4.9), t n e itinerant physician was impure; Brahmans therefore were not to take up medicine as a profession. According to the RV (1.180.2), the divine physicians, the Asvins, are drinkers of mead" (madhu) rather than soma: Jean Filliozat, La doctrine classique de la medecine indienne: ses origines et ses paralleles grecs, 2d ed. (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 1975), pp. 15-16. 51. Caraka Samhita 1.30.20. Cf. Dasgupta, History, vol. 2, pp. 273-84.
3 6o
36,
Notes to Chapter Two Chapter Two i. Smith, Reflections, pp. 46, 203, 224. 2. The term mesocosm was coined by Paul Mus (who further uses the terms "protocosm" for "microcosm" and "metacosm" for "macrocosm" in his study of Indian Buddhism) in his lengthy foreword to Barabudur (Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extreme Orient, 1935), p- 100. Mus's terminology has been further expanded by John S. Strong {The Legend of King As'oka: A Study and Translation of the "As'okdvaddna" [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983], pp. 104, 118-20, 131-33). On this see my "Dakkhina and Agnicayana: An Extended Application of Paul Mus's Typology," History of Religions 26:2 (November 1986), pp. 191-95. 3. On this fascination with number, see Charles Malamoud, "Exegese de rites, exegese de textes," in Cuire le monde, p. 282 and throughout. 4. By "bipolar" I mean two polar opposites which, in spite of, or indeed because of, their opposition, interact dynamically. Male and female are bipolar, as are moon and sun, semen and blood, etc. See HTSL, pp. 1-2. 5. Satapatha Brahmana 7.2.1.4: Taittiriya Brahmana 1.5.9.4. 6. Mus, Barabudur, pp. 53, 59, 203-4. 7. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1.4.1-6. 8. Chandogya Upanisad 6.8.7; Hathayogapradipika 4.50, 56 (Hathayogapradipika of Svdtmaraman, with the commentary of Brahmananda, ed. and tr. Srinivasa Iyengar [Madras: Adyar, 1972]). For an early mythological account of the "bottling up" of the absolute brahman within the human body, wherein it becomes identified as the dtman, see Aitareya Aranyaka 2.4.1-3. 9. On the kalds, see below, sec. 4 of the present chap. 10. Sanjukta Gupta, "The Mandala as an Image of Man," in Richard Gombrich ed., Indian Ritual and its Exegesis. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 35. On the five elements, see below, sec. 3 of the present chap, and chap. 7, sec. 5. 11. Cited in Jean Filliozat, "La discipline psychosomatique du yoga et ses fondaments theoriques," Annuaire du College de France (1965-66), p. 384. 12. RV 10.16.1. See also Gopinath Kaviraj, Bharatiy Satnsbti aur Sadhand (Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1977-79), v o '- 2> P- 2 8i; and Malamoud, "Cuire le monde," in Cuire le monde, p. 52 n. 52, citing the Ydjnavalkya Smrti (3.84). 13. Robert C. Lester, Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973), pp. 23-24, 53; Caroline A. F. Rhys-Davids, "Original Buddhism and Amrta," Melangeschinoisetbouddhiques [Brussels] 6(1938-39), p. 378. On the medical language of the later Saiva Pdsupata Sutras (ca. 1st c. A.D.), see Nagendranath Bhattacharyya, Histoiy of the Tantric Religion (A Historical, Ritualistic and Philosophical Study). Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, pp. 16, 201-2.
Notes to Chapter Two 14. On Buddhist terminology in Caraka, see Priyavrat Sharma, Ayurved ka vaijiianik itihas, 2d ed., Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, no. 1 (Benares: Chowkhambha Orientalia, 1982) p. 102. It is widely held that the replacement of surgery (sdlakya) by pharmacy (rasa s'astra) in Indian medicine was also due to Buddhist influence: see below, chap. 3, n. 21. 15. Dasgupta, History 2:393-99. The dating of the foundational Ayurvedic texts continues to be a matter of some discussion. The Chronology Committee of the National Institute of Sciences of India dates the composition of the Caraka Samhitd to ca. A.D. 100, and that of the Susruta Samhitd to the 3d-4th centuries A.D.: D. M. Bose, ed., A Concise History ofScience in India (New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1971), p. 223. 16. Caraka Samhitd 4.1.1-156. For a discussion, see Dasgupta, Histoty 1:21219. 17. Jean Filliozat, "Les mechanismes psychiques d'apres les textes de yoga," Annuaire du College de France (Paris: 1970-71), p. 416. 18. Ibid., p. 416. 19. Caraka Samhitd 4.5.5. 20. Caraka Samhitd 4.4.13. 21. A very early use of the term dhatu is Atharva Veda 11.3.78. Cf. the ca. 1 ith c. A.D. Sarada Tilaka (6.7) \Sdrdatilakam of Laksmanadesikendra with the Paddrthadarsa Commentaiy by Raghavabhatta. edited by Mukunda Jha Bakshi, 3d ed. (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1986]), a tantric ritual guide, which identifies the seven dhatus with the seven mother goddesses (matrkds). On digestion in general, see Caraka Samhitd 6.15.3-38, especially w. 32-35. 22. C. Dwarkanath (Introduction to Kdyachikitsd [Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1959], pp. 318, 320) defines rasa as plasma, including interstitial fluid and lymph; and the dhatus as "intermediary metabolites," intended for the maintenance of stable formed tissue. See below, chap. 7, sec. 1, for an extended discussion of the term rasa. 23. In digestion the lower dhatus nourish the higher ones either directly or indirectly with rasa irrigating each of the higher dhatus consecutively. This latter (and later) conceptualization holds that each of the last six dhatus are nourished "directly" by the food one eats through its own particular channel, via the rasa dhatu (Caraka Samhita 4.28.4, with the commentaries of Cakrapanidatta and Sivadasa Sena, discussed in Dwarkanath, Kdyachikitsa, pp. 319-26). Cf. Caraka Samhitd 6.15.15-16; Sariigadhara Samhita 1.5.11-12; and Ydjnavalkya Smrti 3.84. 24. Caraka Samhita 6.15.17; MBhT 2.5-6. 25. Jan Gonda (Triads in the Veda, p. 210, cited in Georges Dumezil, Les dieux
,62
Notes to Chapter Two souverains des Indo-Europeens, 3d ed. [Paris: Gallimard, 1986], p. 253) calls dosas "morbific entities." A more general translation for this term, which would take into account its uses in other spheres of Indian discourse, is "break in continuity." 26. Rdeltraud Harzer, s.v. "Samkhya" in Encyclopedia of Religions, ed. Mircea Eliade (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986). 2 7. Caraka Samhita 1.12.13; Susruta Samhita 4.33.3. The earliest mention of the tridosa is useful to the dating the emergence of Ayurveda per se in India. Whereas wind and bile are already mentioned in the Vedas, the term for phlegm (s'lesma) does not appear until the ca. 1000 B.C. Satapatha Brahmana. Following this, it is not until the ca. 313 B.C. varttika of Katyayana on Panini (Astadhyayi 5.1.38) that the three are mentioned together in a compound (vatapittaslesman). One may thus surmise that the definitive formation of Ayurvedic medical theory occurred between 1000 and 313 B.C.: Filliozat, Doctrine classique, pp. 154-59. 28. The dhatus are the material causes for health, while the dosas are the dynamic causes: Dasgupta, History, 2:334. 29. Louis Renou and Jean Filliozat, L'Inde classique: manuel des etudes indiennes (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1947-53), v o '- 2> PP- I 5 2 ~53- On the symbolic role of the five breaths, from the Chandogya Upanisad (3.13; 5.19) to tantric Buddhism, see Alex Wayman, Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: The Arcane Lore of Forty Verses (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1977), pp. 70-71. 30. The higher dhatus are heavier than the lower: Caraka Samhita 1.27.337. 31. Francis Zimmerman, "Rtu-Satmya: Le cycle des saisons et le principe d'appropriation," Purusartha 2 (1975), pp. 87-105. 32. Gopatha Brahmana cited in Sharma, Ayurved, p. 501. 33. Zimmerman, "Rtu-Satmya," pp. 87-92. Also in thzAtbarva Veda (8.1.11-12), Time is identified with the sacrificial fire that can cook and mature (when it is the Jatavedas or Vaisvanard) or consume and devour (when it is the Kravyada fire). 34. In the "complete" system, the six Indian seasons correspond to the six "tastes" (rasas), each of which is most appropriate to one of the seasons: Zimmerman, "Rtu-Satmya," pp. 94-95, 100-104. 35. The effect on the macrocosm of wind, the third element in the triad, is termed viksepa, "dispersion." An explicit paralleling of sun, moon, and wind with their macrocosmic functions and the three dosas is found in Susruta Samhita 1.21.8. 36. January 14, called makara samkranti, is the sole fixed solar date of the lunisolar Indian calendar: Jean-Luc Chambard, "Les trois grands dieux aux enfers: Tradition orale et cycle des fetes hindoues dans un village de PInde centrale (M. P.)," in Catherine Champion, ed., Litteratiire poputaire et tradition orale en Inde (Purusartha 17) (Paris: Editions de l'E.H.E.S.S, 1994), appendix 2. According to Chambard's informants, the twenty-four-day discrepancy between the solstice date (December
363 Notes to Chapter Two 21) and January 14 is due to the 23.2 70 angle between the equator and the ecliptic in central India. 37. Harita Samhita 4.20-30 (La Haritasainhita: texte medical Sanskrit, ed. and tr. Alix Raison [Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1974]). Cf. Zimmerman, "Rtu-Satmya," p. 94. 38. Caraka Samhita 6.8.2-11; Susruta Samhita 6.41.4-5. 39. Raghuvarnsa 19.37-47, cited in Zimmermann, "Rtu-Satmya," p. 96. 40. Taittirlya Samhita 2.3.5.1-3; Maitrayani Samhita 21.7; Kathaka Samhita 11.3. The myth has its origins in RV 10.85.2. 41. RohinI may alternatively be identified with the sun: Filliozat, Doctrine classique, p. 85. 42. Astanga Samgraha 6.49.245 (Srimadvagbhattaviracita Astangasamgraha, ed. with a Hindi translation by Kaviraj Atrideva Gupta, 2 vols. [Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, n.d.]). This verse is directly borrowed into the RA 18.14; similar formulas are found in Caraka Samhita 6.7.69; Brhat Samhita 75.3; and RHT 19.19. For a discussion, see Siddhinandan Misra, Ayurvediya Rasasastra (Benares: Chowkhambha, 1981), pp. 19-20. The classic account of the Ayurvedic healing of rajayaksma is found in Caraka Samhita 6.8.1-191. Cf. Palmyr Cordier's translation, with synoptic passages from the works of Bhela, Vrnda, and Cakrapani, in "Histoire de la medecine indienne. La phtisie pulmonaire," Annales d'hygiene et de medecine coloniales 15 (1912), pp. 255-66 and 535-48. 43. Susruta Samhita 1.14.14-15; but see 6.15.32 for a figure of six to seven days. 44. According to popular traditions in Rajasthan and elsewhere in India, it takes forty days and forty drops of blood to produce one drop of semen: G. Morris Carstairs, The Twice-Born: Study of a Community of High-Caste Hindus (London: Hogarth Press, 1961), pp. 83-84. Cf. SSP 1.73 (in Kalyani Mallik, ed., Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati and Other Works of the Natha Yogis [Poona: Oriental Book House, I 954D45. On the use of the terms saumya and agneya for the male and female sexual fluids in conception, see Susruta Samhita 3.3.3. 46. Vaja is the Sanskrit cognate of the English (and Latinate) "vigor." It is also related etymologically to the Sanskrit ojas (Monier Monier-Williams, A SanskritEnglish Dictionary [London: Oxford University Press, 1899; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984], s.v. "vaja"), the so-called eighth dhatu (Atharva Veda 2.18.1, with the commentary of Sayana) which is nothing other than the fluid of life itself, of which eight drops are located in the heart: Caraka Samhita 1.17.74-75; 1-30.7. 47. E. Anantacharya, Rasayana and Ayurveda (Vishakapatnam: World Teacher Publications, 1935, 1982), pp. 12-14, summarizing discussion from the Caraka and Susruta Samhitas.
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48. Caraka Samhita 6.1.16-24; Susruta Samhita 4.29.10-12; and the A.D. 1131 Manasollasa (2.14-51). Dalhana's commentary to Susruta Samhita 3.3.4 provides a discussion of the three-chambered female reproductive system. For further discussion, see Arion Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft 132 (1982), p. 374; and idem., "Consideration sur une technique du Rasayana ayurvedique," Indo-lranian Journal 17 (1975), 7-28, which indicates parallels with the Vedic initiation hut (diksasala) and similar Taoist structures. Archaeologically excavated pre-4th c. A.D. Buddhist ascetics' cells in the Barabar, Nagarjuni, and Guntupalli Caves clearly reproduce such a double-womb structure: Alexander Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India, Four ReportsMade during the Years 186263-64-65 (Simla: Government Central Press, 1871), plate 19 and pp. 44-53; Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments (Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1971), pp. 44-46 and figs. 14-15. 49. See Goraksa Sataka (verse 133 of Das Goraksasataka, ed. by Karl A. Nowotny [Wetterschlick b. Bonn: Richard Schwarzbold, 1976]): nabhidese vasati eko bhaskaro dahanatmakah/ amrtatma sthito nityan talumule ca eandramah. 50. Aghehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (London: Rider and Co., 1965; New York: Grove Press, 1975), p. 264, citing Vansidhar Sukul Vaidyaraj, Vamamarg (Allahabad: Kalyan Mandir, 1951), p. i l l . 51. Lawrence Babb, The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), pp. 128-40. Babb bases his analysis on fieldwork he carried out in village Madhya Pradesh (Chattisgarh district). On the "meteorological" origins of Goddess worship in the Vedic literature, see A. L. Basham, "Notes on the Origins of Saktism and Tantrism," in Religion and Society in Ancient India: Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya Commemoration Volume (Calcutta: Roy and Chowdhury, 1984), pp. 148-53. I am grateful to Douglas Brooks for bringing this article to my attention. 52. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 6.2.13-16; Chandogya Upanisad5.10.1--]; Prasna Upanisad 1.9-10; Kausitaki Upanisad 1.2-3; Satapatha Brahmana 2.1.3.1-9. 53. Sarikara'a Commentaty on the Chandogya Upanisad (5.10.4), translated in Michel Hulin, La face cachee du temps: Vimaginaire de I'au-dela (Paris: Fayard, 1985), p. 369, who also refers to Saiikara's Commentaty on the Brahma-Sutras (3.1.6). 54. Saiikara's Commentaty on the Chandogya Upanisad (5.10.6), ibid., pp. 369-70. 55. See below, sec. 4 and nn. 88-96. 56. On the evolution from three to five, see David M. Knipe, "One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires: Vedic Symbols in Transformation," History of Religions 12 (1972), pp. 28-41. 57. Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.2.19; 10.1.3.1-4- Already in the Atharva Veda
(3.27.1-6) five "world protectors" (lokapala), the gods of the cardinal directions, are identified with five colors and five elements. 58. It is found, for example, in the alchemical Rasendra Maiigala (1.9): pancatvam gati. 59. Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, p. 32; and Haraprasad Shastri, ed. Advayavajrasamgraha, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 40 (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1927), p. xxviii. 60. Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 3 vols. (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1949), vol. 1, pp. 233, 243. 61. Louis de la Vallee Poussin, "Le Bouddhisme et le Yoga de Patafijali," Melanges chinois et bouddhiques [Brussels], vol. 5 (1936-37), pp. 224-27. 62. See Kathaka Upanisad 3.10-11 and 6.7-8, and its discussion by Madeleine Biardeau in Asian Mythologies, s.v. "Puranic Cosmogony," p. 44. 63. Gerald James Larson, Classical Samkhya: An Interpretation of its Histoty and Meaning, 2d ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), pp. 171-76. 64. Ibid., p. 236. 65. There is a dynamic relationship that obtains between the tanmdtras and the mabdbhutas: sound generates ether; touch, catalyzed by ether, generates air; color, catalyzed by air, generates fire, etc. On this, see Priyanaranjan Ray, Histoty of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafidla Chandra Ray (Calcutta: Indian Chemical Society, 1956), p. 264. 66. T. A. Gopinath Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography, 2 vols. in four tomes (Madras: Law Road Printing House, 1914-16), vol. 2, part 2, p. 374. 67. Shashibhushan Dasgupta, An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism, 2d ed. (Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press, 1958), pp. 19, 25, 29-33. 68. Bhattacharyya, History, p. 224. 69. A transcendant sixth, Vajrasattva, was equated with pure consciousness and Adi Buddha, the "primal" Buddha: ibid., pp. 232-33. 70. Dasgupta, Introduction, pp. 85-86. For an expansion of this discussion, see also Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 1:235-39. 71. Ibid., p. 239. 72. Taittiriya Samhita 7.1.6.2, cited in Filliozat, Doctrine classique, p. 85. 73. Satapatha Brahmana 1.6.4.5; Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1.5.14. Sixteen (or seventeen) is also the number of priestly technicians employed in a soma sacrifice (Jan Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985], p. 210 n. 33). Elsewhere, the soma plant is said to be sixteen petaled: Shashibhushan Dasgupta, Obscure Religious Cults, 3d ed. (Calcutta: Firma KLM Limited, 1976), p. 251.
j66
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74. Brhaddranyaka Upanisad 1.5.15-16. On such "participation in number" see Betty Heimann, Facets of Indian Thought (London: Allen and Unwin, 1964), pp. 95-99, "The Discovery of Zero and Its Philosophical Implications in India." See above, n. 3. 75. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "kala." This carries over into the hathayogic physiology, in which the ddhdras, the "supports" of the subde body, are sixteen in number: SSP 2.10-25; HYP 3.73. 76. Dasgupta, History, 2:317. 77. Aitareya Brahmana 1.3. 78. Satapatha Brahmana 10.4.1.17. Prajapati is also called sodas'in, "having sixteen parts," in Yajur Veda 8.36. The person (purusa) is said to consist of sixteen parts, of which the sixteenth is immortal, in the Chandogya Upanisad (6.7.1-3) and Prasna Upanisad (6.2). 79. Mahabharata 12.224.43; 12.298.15. It is in this context that the use of the term soma for the herbal medicines ingested in the kutfpraves'a technique takes on its greatest fullness of meaning: Susnita Samhita 4.29.4-10. On the duration of the menstrual cycle, see Ydjnavalkya Smrti 79, quoted in the 13th c. Smrtkandrika of Devannabhatta, Ahnika Kanda (an English translation with notes) by J. R. Gharpure, ist ed. (Bombay: V.J. Gharpure, 1946), pp. 25-26. Cf. Manu Smrti 3.46 (Manu Smrti, with the commentary of Kulluka Bhatta, ed. Gopala Sastri Nene, Kashi Sanskrit Series, no. 114 [Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1970]). 80. Jan Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit. History of Indian Literature, II, 1 (Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1977), p. 171. 81. The association with Siva is especially powerful if the new moon (amdvdsyd) falls on a Monday, in which case he is called sompati, "lord of the moon": Babb, Divine Hierarchy, pp. 109-10. A north Indian guide to the "sixteen Mondays vow" is the anonymous Solah Somvdrtathd Somvdr aur Saumya Prados Vrat Kathd (Hardwar: Ranadhir Booksales, n.d.). 82. RV 8.47.17, in Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "kala." 83. The classical study of this subject is Jan Gonda, "The Number Sixteen,"
88. This is stated most graphically in the five-fires doctrine of the Chandogya Upanisad (5.4.1-5.9.2), which constitutes the earliest systematic Indian statement on the cycle of death and rebirth in its relationship to the cycle of the year and the food chain.
in idem., Change and Continuity in Indian Tradition (The Hague: Mouton, 1965), pp. 115-30. 84. Heesterman, Inner Conflict, p. 210, n. 33. 85. Jaiminiya Upanisad Brahmana 3.38.8. 86. Mahdnirvana Tantra 10.127 (Arthur Avalon, Tantra of the Great Liberation [London: Luzac & Co., 1913; reprint New York: Dover Publications, 1972]), cited in Gonda, "Sixteen," p. 116. 87. Mahabharata 12.293.4-8.
89. In this regard, the Mahabharata (12.293.3-7) statement that the other fifteen digits of the moon are merely "vestures" (kos'as) of the immortal digit is a significant one. For a discussion of the fifteen fiery and one lunar kalds in the microcosm and macrocosm, see Ramlal Srivastav, ed., Yogavdni: "Gorakh" Vis'esdnk (Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1977), p. 40. 90. The SSP (1.64) lists seventeen (16 + 1) digits, of which the last is alternately called amrta or nivrtti. Cf. Amaraughas'dsana, p. 12. 91. The SSP (1.65) lists thirteen (12 + 1) solar digits. 92. Gorakh Bant Sabadl 89. Cf. the Gyan Chautisd (v. 2) which, after evoking the sixteen lunar and twelve solar kalds, speaks of the four remaining digits as the immortal abode of the pirude v. The SSP(i.66) however, enumerates eleven (10 + 1) fiery digits in the body. In basic tantric worship practice as well, fire is said to be composed often kalds: HT, p. 146. The Kuldrnava Tantra (6.37-40) lists and names sixteen lunar, twelve solar, and ten fiery kalds, which it identifies with the phonemes. 93. This process is also cast, in yogic parlance, as a raising of the yogin's female energy (s'akti), of the indwelling Goddess herself, towards union with her beloved Siva who, identified with the absolute brahman, resides in the moon of the cranial vault. The mounting of the Goddess (sakti-cdlana) is also described as the awakening and raising of a female serpent, named kundalini, from the lower abdomen to the head. In Buddhist Siddha sources, this female energy is termed avadhuti, cdnddli, or dombi, all names for "outcaste" women: Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, 2:262. 94. Svetdsvatara Upanisad 2.12. Kaldgnirudra literally means "Rudra [i.e., the destroyer] of the fire of time." 95. The number is variable: certain systems describe a system of nine, twelve, or even twenty-seven cakras, of which six extend beyond the top of the head into space: "The System of Cakras According to Goraksanatha," in Gopinath Kaviraj, Aspects of Indian Thought (Calcutta: University of Burdwan, 1966), pp. 229-37. 96. w y p 3 . 4 . 97. Asian Mythologies, s.v. "Puranic Cosmogony." See below, chap. 7 nn. 181-86. 98. In this perspective, kala is at once the inactive aspect of the goddess Sakti as principle of manifestation and the active aspect of the god Siva as principle of nonmanifestation: Padoux, Vac, p. 89; Gopinath Kaviraj, Tantrik Sddhand aur Samskrti (Patna: Bihar Rastrabhasa Parisad, 1979), pp. 209-10. 99. Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 243.
,ftK
Notes to Chapter Two ioo. Gorakh Bant Sabadl 219; Pad 56.2. Cf. HYP 3.3; KJnN 6.16, 28; 14.23, 26; 17.17. 101. Harvey Alper, "The Cosmos as Siva's Language Game: Mantra According to Ksemaraja's Sivasutravimarsini," in idem., Mantra (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), pp. 264, 274, 289 n. 44. 102. The matter is much more complex than this, bringing into play the bindu ("drop" of energy, sound, and light) and bija ("seed"), which are identified in a number of ways with Siva and Sakti, according to the textual sources. On the interrelationship of nada, bindu, and bija in phonematic emanation, see HT, p. 94, and Padoux, Vac, pp. 96-121, esp. p. 116. In the tantric "initiation of penetration" (vedhamayi diksa), the guru completes his acoustic penetration of his initiate by telescoping the final letters of the Sanskrit alphabet into the bindu. This he unites with the kala, which he in turn unites with the nada: Sarada Tilaka 5.137. See below, chap. 10, sec. 2. 103. Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega, The Triadic Heart of Siva: Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), pp. 152-54. The sixteen vowels, especially the visarga, are identified with Siva, the consonants with Sakti: Padoux, Vac, p. 417. 104. Padoux, Vac, p. 79. 105. Pratapaditya Pal, Hindu Religion and Iconology According to the Tantrasara (Los Angeles: Vichitra Press, 1981), pp. 18-19. 106. Mahabharata 12.328.13. 107. Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 47. 108. Padoux, Vac, p. 91, n. 12. On the creation of new "niches" to accomodate an ever-expanding metaphysics, see HTSL, p. 14; Dyczkowski, Cation, p. 125. In a veritable explosion, the number of kalas is quadrupled in some sources to sixtyfour, itself a widely employed tantric "round number." A Nath Siddha text speaks of the sixty-four lunar digits, which have as their homologues sixty-four locations within the body: Sarasvati Sahagal, Gorakh Dars'an (Hyderabad: Madhu Printers, 1979), p. 123. The sixty-four practical, mechanical, and fine arts, have also been referred to as kalas since at least the time of the Tantras. 109. Raj Bali Pandey, Hindu Samskaras (Socio-Religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments), 2d ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969), pp. 17-23. 1 10. The end result of the alchemical samskaras can be "sixteen-WWTM gold." the Indian homologue of twenty-four-carat gold: Rasahrdaya Tantra {Srimadgovindabhagavatpadaviracita Rashrdayatantram with the commentary of Caturbhuja Misra, tr. into Hindi by Daultarama Rasasastri (Benares: Chaukhamba Orientalia, 1989) translator's introduction, p. xxxi. This carries over into the Indian monetary system. Since at least the time of the Mann Smrti (8.136) and down to the middle of
369 Notes to Chapter Three the twentieth century, a basic monetary subunit has been the sixteenth fraction of a whole: Gonda, "Sixteen," p. 117. Just as the ancient karsapana was divided into sixteen mdsa[ka]s, so the pre-1947 Indian rupee was divided into sixteen annas, whence expressions referring to gold or river water as "sixteen annas pure": Milton Singer, ed., Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 84; Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 130. Cf. BhP 6.4o8b-409a, which refers to mercury that has been combined with sixteen "seeds" of other elements and becomes capable of producing gold. i n . BW6.485; 7.11. 112. The matra (twenty-four seconds) is defined in Brahmananda's commentary to HIT 2.12. Pranayama begins with the holding of the breath for 12'A matras, with all further yogic practice merely being so many multiples of this basic unit, culminating in samadhi, total yogic integration, when the breath is held for twelve days. A similar geometrical progression, working from a basic unit, occurs in the alchemical domain as well: see below, chap. 10, sec. 3. 113. Basava, vacana no. 537, translated in A. K. Ramanujan, "The Myths of Bhakti: Images of Siva in Saiva Poetry," in Meister, ed., Discourses on Siva, p. 213. Cf. Anne-Marie Gaston, Siva in Dance, Myth and Iconography (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 164; and Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 275-78. 114. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "atman." See above, chap. 1, n. 48. Chapter Three 1. Aung, Folk Elements, pp. 68-69. O n t n e Zawgyis and Weikzas, see ibid., pp. 41-54 and Xeedham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2, "History of Scientific Thought" (1956), p. 174; and vol. 5, pt. 3, p. 166. See also above, chap. 1, n. 6. 2. Banas Kada?nbari {Purvabhaga Complete), ed. by M. R. Kale, 4th revised ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968), pp. 338-39. Cf. Kadambari: A Classical Sanskrit Story of Magical Transformations, tr. with an introduction by Gwendolyn Layne (New York: Garland Publishing, 1991), pp. 225-26. 3. Alberunis India, ed. with notes by Edward Sachau, 2 vols. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trubner, Inc., 1910; reprint Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983), vol. 1, pp. 191-92. Variants on this myth are found in both Telugu and Cambodian sources: the 15th c. Telegu Bhqjarajtyamu of Ananta names the alchemist Sarpati [Carpati]: Arion Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography in the Medieval Deccan," Journal of the European Ayurvedic Society 2 (1992), p. 155. The Cambodian source calls the alchemist a "brahmin" and the king the "leprous king of Angkor Thorn": Jean Eilliozat, "Al-Biruni and Indian Alchemy," in Debiprasad
!7"
!7'
Notes to Chapter- Three
Notes to Chapter Three
Chattopadhyaya, ed. Studies in the History of Science in India, 2 vols. (New Delhi: Educational Enterprises, 1982), vol. 1, p. 342, citing G. Poree and E. Maspero, Moeurs et coutumes des Khmers (Paris: 1938), p. 73. 4. The Nath Siddha GopTcand's capital city is called Dhara (Dharanagar) in Richard Carnac Temple, Legends of the Punjab, 3 vols. (London: Turner and Company, 1884-86; reprint Patiala: Department of Languages, Punjab, 1963), vol. 2, p. 63 (legend no. 18, v. 680). 5. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), pp. 497~98Less than forty years after Marco Polo, the Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta describes yogis, encountered near Gwalior and in coastal Tamil Nadu, who specialized in the preparation of mineral pills: Ibn Battuta, Voyages, 3 vols., tr. into the French by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti with an introduction and notes by Stephane Yerasimos (Paris: Maspero, 1982), vol. 3, pp. 171, 275. 6. Bernier, Voyage dans les Etats du Grand Mogol, p. 245. This detail, of Yogis being great eaters, seems to run against the accepted image of such persons as ascetic in their eating habits. Yet, such seems not to be the case with these Yogis, who have no use for self-mortification. On eating sulfur at daybreak, see Khecari Vidya [KhV] 4.13 (NNA MSS no. 5-6568). All KhV references are to this manuscript. Elsewhere, as I show in chap. 9, mercury's powers of "consumption" are also prodigious.
12. Astanga Samgraha 6.49.245. The Astanga Hrdaya (6.13.36) prescribes the use of mercury for timira roga. Arion Ro§u (Gustave Lietard et Palmyr Cordier: Travaux stir I'histoire de la medecine indienne, Publications de l'lnstitut de Civilisation Indienne, no. 56 [Paris: De Boccard, 1989], p. lxxxix n. 148), who takes his citations from Kunte's 1912 Bombay (4th) edition of the AH, and Athavale's 1980 Poona edition of the AS respectively, notes the following classic references to mercury in these works: AS 6.30.80 = AH 6.13.36; 6.32.31; 6.25.610-628; and AS 6.49.392 = AH 6.39.162. On the dates of Vagbhatta the Elder, and the closely related Astanga Samgraha and Astanga Hrdaya, see Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 172-90.
7. One of Oman's later works is entitled Cults, Customs, and Superstitions of India (London: 1908). 8. John Campbell Oman, The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India (London: 1903; reprint Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1973), pp. 60-61. I have modernized some of Oman's language. For other accounts of alchemists, see ibid., pp. 56-59. 9. The ca. 1st c. A.D. Arthasdstra (2.12.2; 2.13.3) of Kautilya appears to refer to the amalgamation of gold with mercury in mining, metallurgy, and coinage, when it uses the terms rasaviddha and rasapdka: R. P. Kangle, The Kautilya Arthasdstra, 2 vols. (Bombay: University of Bombay, i960), vol. 1, pp. 121-22 and notes; vol. 2, pp. 55-56. Rasa may, however, mean "smelted ore" rather than "mercury" in this case: Subarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, p. 305. In his 6th c. Brhat Samhita, a work devoted mainly to astrology, Varahamihira (75.3) mentions an aphrodisiac preparation containing mercury (parada) and other minerals. 10. Caraka Samhita 6.7.70-71. 11. Susruta Samhita 4.25.39; 5.3.14; 6.35.7. Sharma (Ayurved, pp. 76, 89, 113) maintains that the "original" Susruta is more ancient than the Caraka, but that Nagarjuna's 6th-9th c. recension (and addition of a sixth section, called the "Uttaratantra") of the Susruta is later than the final recension of the Caraka. Cf. Majumdar, "Medicine," in Bose, Concise History, p. 223.
13. Even prior to the medieval emergence of rasa s'astra, Ayurveda had its own form of elixir or rejuvenation therapy, called rasayana, with which it claimed to be able to prolong life for one hundred, even five hundred years. Unlike dehavada and rasa s'astra, however, rasayana preparations are nearly exclusively herbal: Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, p. 316; and Ro§u, "Yoga et alchimie," pp. 365-66. 14. The earliest list of the eight siddhis is found in the pre-3d. c. A.D. Buddhist Subdbuparipychasdstra (par. 199, translated by W. Wassiljew, in Der Buddhismus, seine Dogmen, Geschichte undLiteratur [Saint Petersburg, i860], vol. 1, p. 218). Variant lists are found in the 3 d - n t h c. A.D. Buddhist Sddhanamdld (ed. Benoytosh Bhattacharya, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, 51 [Baroda: 1928, vol. 2, pp. lxxxv, 350 [w. 3-5], and 509 [w. 14-16], as well as in the 9th-ioth c. A.D. Hindu KJiiN(Kaulajnananirnaya and Some Minor Texts of the School of Matysyendrandtha, ed. by Prabodh Chandra Bagchi, Calcutta Sanskrit Series, no. 3 [Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1934]) of Matsyendranath (5.3-4), and the slightly later Hindu alchemical Tantra, the KCM (NNA MSS no. 5-3969, fol. 2^3-4). Unless otherwise indicated, all KCM references are to this manuscript. All of these three lists include the siddhi of rasa-rasayana. A parallel list, from a Tibetan Buddhist source, the Dragpajets'en, is found in Stephan Beyer, The CultofTdra (Berkeley: University of California Press, I0 73)> P- 2 5 2 - The eight siddhis are defined in Benoytosh Bhattacharya, An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. 85-86. Three of the eight are found in the 6th c. A.D. Astanga Samgraha of Vagbhatta the Elder: Sharma, Ayurved, p. 179. 15. Perhaps the earliest occurance of the term may be construed from the Mahabharata (1.165.10) description of Vasistha's wish-fulfilling cow, which in addition to milk gives "the six flavors and the fluid ambrosial elixir" (sadrasam camrtarasam rasayanam). Cf. Rdmdyana 4.27.3. An alternative Hindu enumeration of the eight siddhis, which differs entirely from the eight "magical" siddhis, is first found in Apastambha Dharma Sutra 2.9.23.6-7. A siddhi not generally included in such Hindu listings is the power to transmute base metals into gold with one's bodily
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secretions. An early mention is verse 74 of the Yogatattva Upanisad (tr. in Jean Varenne, Upanishads dn yoga [Paris: Gallimard, 1971]), p. 81. 16. The ninth-century Jain author Ugraditya devotes the twenty-fourth and penultimate chapter of his medical work, the Kalydnakaraka, to rasa-rasdyana: Bhagiratha Prasada Tripathi's foreword to Goraksa Samhita (Part Two), ed. Pandeya, p. 1. Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 194-95, 225. 17. The Chou I Tshan Thung Chhi (A.D. 142), attributed to Wei Po-Yang, is the earliest Chinese canon of theoretical alchemy: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), p. 248. See below, sec. 3. 18. RA 18.211-21. This alchemical operation is discussed in chap. 5, sec. 4b.
1978), p. 137. Madhava quotes the RHT, RA, RRS, a lost work entitled Rasasiddhdnta, and that of an author named Sarvajfia Ramesvara. 27. See Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 254-55. 28. The Rasaratnakara of Nityanatha and the Bhutiprakarana of Goraksanatha: see below, chap. 5, sees. 4f and 4J1. 29. Amarakosa I . I . I I : vidyadharapsaro yaksarakso gandharvakimnarah/pisaco guhyakah siddho bhuto 'mi devayonayah (Srimad Amarasimhaviracitam ndmalingdnusdsanam Amarakosa, 2d ed., ed. with Hindi and Sanskrit commentaries by Brahmananda Tripathi, Chaukhamba Surbharati Granthamala, no. 52 [Benares: Chaukhamba Surbharati Prakashan, 1982]). The Bhdgavata Purana (5.24.4) locates the Siddhas and Vidyadharas at the highest atmospheric level, immediately below the spheres of the sun and Rahu, the "descending node" of the moon. In the Buddhist Manjusri Mulakalpa, the bodhisattva Vajrapani, the foremost of the Vidyadharas, is iconographically placed to the left of Sakyamuni: David Snellgrove, Buddhist Himalaya: Travels and Studies in Quest of the Origins and Nature of Tibetan Religion (Oxford: Cassirer, 1957), p. 287. See also above, chap. 1, n. 10.
19. RA 18.211.
20. RA 17.165a, 166a. The latter part of the Sanskrit phrase translated here reads: purvam lohe parikseta tato dehe prayojayet. 21. So, for example, Nagarjuna, the 6th~9th c. final redactor of the Susnita Samhita, removed salyatantra from the canon: for a survey of the question, see Arion Rofu, "Le renouveau contemporain de I'Ayurveda," Wiener Zeitschriftfiir die Kunde Siidasiens 26 (1982), p. 65; and Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 9-10, 18; and Sharma, Ayurved, p. 540. 22. On rasa sdstra, which Prafulla Chandra Ray and others have termed "iatrochemistry," see Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, p. 314. Cf. Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," p. 365. 23. On rasacikitsa, see Rosu, "Renouveau," pp. 65-66; and Majumdar, "Medicine," in Bose, ed. Concise History, p. 233. Both of these scholars relate rasacikitsa to the south Indian school of Siddha medicine. See below, chap. 4, nn. 112-14 f° r a discussion of the medieval Mahesvara Siddhas, who were the likely pioneers of this tradition. 24. In the words of Alberuni, "The greediness of the ignorant Hindu princes for gold-making does not know any limit": Sachau, Albentnis India, 1:193. 25. The complementarity of mercurial alchemy and breath control is already present in the RA (1.18) and other texts from the tantric period. It is the greatly increased emphasis on the latter that distinguishes Siddha alchemy from tantric alchemy. On this comparison, see Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 5 (1983), "Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy," p. 257. 26. Sarvadarsana-samgraha of Sayana-Madhava, ed. with commentary by Vasudev Shastri Abhyankar, Government Oriental Scries, Class A, no. 1 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1924; reprint 1978), p. 202; English translation in The Sarva-darsana-sa?ngraha or Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy by Madhava Achdrya, tr. E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Trubner, 1882; 7th reprint ed. Benares: Chaukhamba Amarabharati,
30. See above, chap. 1, n. 13. 31. Translation in Swami Hariharananda Aranya, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, with the commentary of Vyasa (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1981), pp. 333-3432. Priyavrat Sharma, Indian Medicine in the Classical Age, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies, vol. 85 (Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1972), p. 99. As an Ayurvedic category, bhutavidya is limited mainly to mental disorders and complications in childbirth, both of which arise from demonic influences. 33. The classic work on the subject is Jean Filliozat, Etude de demonologie indienne: le Kumdratantra de Ravana et les textes parall'eles indiens, tibetains, chinois, cambodgien et arabe, Cahiers de la Societe Asiatique, le serie, vol. 4 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1937). This work is an expansion of an earlier article by Filliozat, "Le Kumaratantra de Ravana," Journal Asiatique 226 (1935):!—66. The Kumdra Tantra as an independent work is certainly p r e - n t h century; much of the material in it draws on the Atharva Veda, the epics, and the Caraka and Susnita Samhitds. 34. A Sittar alchemical work, the Bogar 7000 (probably of late date) names Ravana s son Indrajit as an alchemist: personal communication from N. Sethu Raghunathan, Madurai, February 1985. 35. Ausadhibhih asura-bhavanesu rasdyaneti: Vyasa's commentary on Yoga Sutra 4.1 (this verse has a parallel in the Buddhist Abhidhammakosa [7.122]). It has been argued that Yoga Sutra 4.1 was a late non-Patanjalian addition made some time after the 4th c. A.D. On this, see Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," pp. 369, 371; Vallee Poussin, "Le Bouddhisme et le Yoga de Patanjali," p. 241.
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36. upasampraptah kamanlyabhir asurakanyabhir upanltam rasayanam: Sdmkhya Yogadarsana or Yogadariana of Patanjali, ed. Gosvami Damodara Sastri et al. (Benares: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, 1990), p. 392. The ca. A.D. 1040 king Bhoja of Dhara is the first commentator to gloss ausadhi as "such elixirs as mercury, etc." (pdradddi rasayanddi): for a discussion of these commentaries on Yoga Siltra 4.1, see Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," pp. 370-72. See also RA 12.102-3 o n t n e method used by these semidivine and demonic females to recover said fluids; and KCM (fol. 6b-4-7a.i) on alchemical means of gaining access to such creatures. 37. For a discussion, see Ro§u, "Yoga et alchimie," pp. 376-78. The Bhdgavata Purana is dated to the 6th-i2th centuries A.D. 38. V. R. Madhavan, Siddha Medical Manuscripts in Tamil (Madras: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1984), p. 27. While asuras (antigods, "Titans"), bhiitas (beings, bogeymen), and rdksasas (brahmin ghouls; technically, Ravana was one of these) are all different types of demons according to Hindu demonology (see Amarakos'a I . I . I I ) , they are often conflated in both popular and literary discourse. 39. See for example the rich epic mythology of Kavya Usanas, the chaplain of the Asuras, whose sorcery was more powerful than the sacrificial knowledge of Brhaspati, chaplain of the gods. On this, as well as the semantic field of the term kavi, from which Kavya Usanas' name as well as terms for "(alchemical) wizard" are generated, see below, chap. 9, sec. 5 and chap. 10, sec. 5. 40. RA 2 . 1 0 - 1 1 .
41. Hasan Mujtaba and Nafisa Shah, "Taming of the Serpent," Newsline (Pakistan), August 1992, p. 82. Guga Chauhan, also known by the names of Guru Guga (or Goga), Guga Plr, Guga Vlr, or Zahlr Plr, is counted by the Nath Siddhas as one of their own. While his principal shrine is located in Rajasthan, Guga is also revered throughout north India, in Pakistan, and the Deccan. On his cult and legend, see Pushpa Bhati, Rajasthan ke Lok Devtd evam Lok Sdhity (Bikaner: Kavita Prakashan, 1991), pp. 89-97; Jacky Assayag, "Pouvoir contre 'puissances': Bref essai de demonologie hindou-musulmane," L'Homme 131 (July-Nov. 1994), p. 47; E. C. Lapoint, "The Epic of Guga: A North Indian Oral Tradition," in S. Vatuk, ed., American Studies in the Anthropology of India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978), pp. 281308; and Stuart H. Blackburn, Peter J. Claus, Joyce B. Fluekiger, and Susan Wadley, eds., Oral Epics in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 26-27, 224-27.
42. On the hathayogic symbolism of this passage, see above, chap. 2, nn. 95-96; on a similar Nath Siddha tradition, a legend involving Jalandharanath and GopIcand, see below, chap. 9, nn. 149-50. 43. On this great Serpent, called Sesa or Ananta, see below, chap. 7, sec. 6; and chap. 8, sec. 1.
44. N. Dutt, "Notes on the Nagarjunikonda Inscriptions," Indian Historical Quarterly 7:3 (Sept. 1931), p. 639; Rahula Sankrtyayana," (Recherches Bouddhiques II) L'Origine du Vajrayana et les quatre-vingt siddhas," Journal Asiatique 225:2 (Oct.-Dec. 1934), p. 212. 45. aryaka nama Gopala-darakah siddhadesena samadisto raja bhavisyati: Mrcchakatika, Act 2 (Mrcchakatika of SrJ Sudraka, ed. byjagdish Chandra Mishra [Benares: Chaukhamba Surbharati, 1985], p. 117). For discussions, see P. Lai, Great Sanskrit Plays ill Modern Translation (New York: New Directions, 1964), p. 79; Divakar Pandey, Gorakhnath evam unki Parampard kd Sdhity (Gorakhpur: Gorakhpur University, 1980), p. 67; and Sankrtyayana, "Recherches," p. 213. 46. Vdsavadattd, w. 78-79, 87 (in Fitz-Edward Hall, The Vdsavadatta ofSubandhu [Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1859]). 47. The two may have been separate toponyms, for mountains in the same region. The Srisailam of the Mdhabhdrata and other Hindu sources would be none other than the site of one of the twelve self-generated (svayambhu) lirigas of Siva and modern-day I Iindu religious center in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, while the Buddhist Srlparvata would correspond to the modern Nagarjunikonda, some sixty miles to the east. On this question, see Arion Ro§u, "A la recherche d'un tirtha enigmatique du Deccan medieval," Bulletin de VEcole Francaise d'Extreme Orient 60 (1969), p. 46. See below, chap. 4, sec. 5a. 48. Mahdbhdrata 3.83.16-21; David Lorenzen, The Kdpdlikas and Kdlamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects (New Delhi: Thomson Press, 1972), p. 51. Other early Sanskrit references to Srisailam are the Susiilta Samhitd (4.29.27), the 6th c. A.D. Brhat Samhitd of Varahamihira (16.3), and the Padma Purana: Ro§u, "A la recherche," p. 39; and idem, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 153. 49. "Brahmi Inscriptions at Nagarjunikonda," South Indian Epigraphy. Annual Reportfor the Year Ending 31st March igzj (Madras: Archaeological Survey of India, 1927), pp. 73-74 (Brahmi inscription no. 214). See also Etienne Lamotte, Histoire du Bouddhisme indien, des origines a I'ere Saka (Louvain: Universite de Louvain, 1958), pp. 377, 382, 583. 58950. According to Kaviraj (Bhdratiy, vol. 1, pp. 411-12, citing Vinaya Pitaka 2.35), the Buddhists of Srlparvata knew of the rddhis of "transmutation" and "transubstantiation." 51. The Siddhathakas were one of four Sriparvata-based schools to form the Andhra contingent of the 3d c. A.D. Mahasarighika heresy. The Mahasarighikas were branded heretical because they maintained that nirvana was, rather than the extinction of suffering as taught by the Buddha, a "positive faultless state": Dutt, "Notes," p. 650, citing Kathavatthu 9.2, 19.6. 52. R05U, "A la recherche," pp. 47-48; idem., "Alchemy," p. 153. I cannot say
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Notes to Chapter Three whether the Siddhas of whom Siva is made the Lord here were of the divine or the human variety. The Saivas who apparently eased the Buddhists out of the Andhra country included the Pasupata sect (Bana's alchemist is called a "Maha-pasupata"). These would later be followed by the Kapalikas and Vlrasaivas: see below, chap. 4, n. 163. 53. Tirumular, Tirumantiram 1463 (1490) quoted in Kamil V. Zvelebil, The Poets of the Powers (London: Rider and Company, 1973), p. 27. 54. Thiru N. Kardaswamy, History of Siddba Medicine (Madras: 1979), p. 31 1. calls Tirumular the disciple of Nandhi Devar, whom he says later incarnated himself as the 12th c. Virasaiva saint (and alchemist, in some sources) Allama Prabhu (ibid., p. 354). A certain Nandi is cited in three post-i2th c. works, the Rasendraciidamani, the Rasaprakasasudhakara, and the Rasaratnasamucchaya: see below, chap. 5, nn. 16, 211, 220. A certain Nandikesvara is termed an "authority on alchemy" (rasadhikarika) in a 9th c. work; the Jain ayurvedic writer Ugraditya (see above, n. 16) calls his guru Sri Nandi: Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 194-95, 225, 480. Nandi is called the "god of alchemy" in Kavyamimamsa 6: idem, Indian Medicine in the Classical Age, p. 42. 55. Eighteen independent lists of the eighteen Sittars are culled from manuscripts by V7. R. Madhavan in his Siddha Medical Manuscripts in Tamil, pp. 20-26. 56. Zvelebil, Poets of the Powers, p. 36 and n. 44; and Renou and Filliozat, I'hide classique, vol. 2, p. 163. Sittar medical works are older. 57. Moti Chandra, Sartbavah (Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1953), p. 188, quoted in Sharma, Ayurved, p. 480 n. 1. 58. There, at the Dhandhayuthapani shrine, associated with Bogar, worshippers obtain a sacred ash which has curative powers: A. Shanmuga Velan, Siddhars Science of Longevity and Kalpa Medicine of India (Madras: Sakthi Nilayam, 1963), p. 49. Bogar is also said to have created the famous image of Murugan at his Hill Temple at Palani from an alloy of nine poisonous metalloids: Manuel Moreno, "Pancamirtatn: God's Washings as Food," in The Eternal Food cd. Ravindra Khare (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), p. 159. 59. On Koriganar, see below, chap. 4, sec. 2. 60. Bogar's principal work, the Sattakantam, which is certainly much later than the dates of the Bogar of legend, has him travel to Rome, Jerusalem, and Mecca as well: Filliozat ("Taoi'sme et yoga," p. 78 [citing Paramananda Mariadassou, Medecine traditionelle de Vlnde, 4 vols. (Pondicherry: Sainte Anne, 1934-38), vol. 3, p. 6 n. 2]) and P. C. Bagchi ("Compte-rendu de Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, edition de la Sadhanamala," Indian Historical Quarterly 6 [1930], pp. 584-87) consider Bogar to have been a south Indian who went to China; Needham (Science and Civilisation,
»77 Notes to Chapter Three vol. 5, pt. 5 [1983], p. 285) and Shanmuga Velan (Siddhar Science, p. 18) see him as a Chinese (Taoist) philosopher who came to south India to study medicine. 61. Maritime trade between China and ports on India's west coast (Muzuris and Broach) was under way by the end of the 4th c. A.D.: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 1 (1954), pp. 171, 174, 178-79; vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), pp. 354, 406-7; and vol. 5, pt. 5 (1983), p. 282. 62. Indeed, the very term "alchemy" is likely derived from the Chinese root kim/chim ("aurifaction") or the term chin i ("potable gold"): Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), pp. 351-53, 355. For a history of Taoist alchemy in this period, ibid., pp. 213-59; 320-31. 63. It should be noted that mercury naturally occurs, in traces, in areas of geothermic activity, where (often sulfurous) hot springs throw up small quantities of cinnabar from deep in the earth: Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas of the World, 2d ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 88. Such traces may have sufficed, prior to the importing of foreign mercury, for the fledgling alchemists of the Indian subcontinent. See below, chap. 7, sec. 3, for the symbolic importance of this geothermal and geological phenomenon. 64. Filliozat, "Taoi'sme et yoga," p. 46, citing I-Ching, Ta Tang Hsi-yu chin fa kao seng chuan, ed. and tr. Edouard Chavannes, Memoire compose de la grande dynastie T'angsur les religieux eminents qui allerent chercher la Loi dans lespays d'Occident (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894), pp. 23-24; and Arthur Waley, "Notes on Chinese Alchemy," Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 6:1 (1930), pp. 22-24. 65. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 1 (1954), p. 212; ibid., vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), p. 160. The case of Narayanasvamin is found in the A.D. 863 Yu-yang Tsa Tsu of Tuan Cheng-Shih: ibid., vol. 5, pt. 4, p. 197. 66. Bhattacharyya, History, p. 99; Prabodh Chandra Bagchi, "On Foreign Element in the Tantra," Studies in the Tantras (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1975), pp. 48-49. 67. Su yu ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629) by Samuel Beal, 2 vols. (London: Trubner & Co., 1884; reprint ed. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1969), 2:212-16. For a discussion, see Thomas Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D., 2 vols. (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904-05), 2:200-8. On Hsuan-tsang's role in the translation of the Tao te ching, see Filliozat, "Taoi'sme et yoga," p. 41. 68. Banabhatta also describes a prince who, "mad for the elixir of life," is dying from the medicines given him to counter the disease of royal consumption (rdjayaksma); and a young physician named Rasayana who, although he had mastered Ayurveda in its entirety, takes his own life when he is unable to heal an ailing
J78 Notes to Chapter Three king: Harsacaritra 6.224 an<^ 5-J7^ (The Harsacarita of Bdnabhatta with Exhaustive Notes [Ucchvasas I-VIII], ed. Pandurang Vamana Kane [Bombay: n.p., 1918; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973]). 69. I-Ching, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695), tr. J. Takakusu (London: Clarendon Press, 1896; reprint ed. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1966), pp. 134-35. 70. The two pilgrims were named Hui-seng and Sung yiin. The date was A.D. 520: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 1 (1954), pp. 207, 209; and vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), p. 354. 71. China also imported Indian medicine at the same time as it did Buddhism: a text entitled Buddha-vaidyardja-sdstra was translated into Chinese in A.D. 230: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part 4 (1980), p. 336. Manuscript fragments on Hindu sorcery of the "Kaksaputa" variety, dating from the Tang period (A.D. 618-906) and found in Kucha, in Chinese Turkestan, indicate that the Chinese were interested in this Indian tradition as well: Filliozat, "Taoisme et yoga," p. 76. On the Kaksaputa Tantra, a 13th c. Hindu work attributed to Siddha Nagarjuna, see below, chap. 5, sec. 5J and nn. 60-61. 72. In the 5th c. A.D. Mahaydnasutrdlamkdra Sdstra, for example: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), p. 428; and vol. 5, pt. 5 (1983), pp. 270, 274-7573. For a full discussion of these practices and their Taoist symbolism, see below, chap. 7, nn. 87, 92-101. Cf. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), pp. 148-50, and vol. 5, pt. 5, pp. 269-75. The Ayurvedic rejuvenation (rasayana) technique of kuti-pravesa, "entering the hut," has a close Taoist parallel. See above, chap. 2, n. 48; below, chap. 10, nn. 103-5; and David Gordon White, Myths of the Dog-Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 163, 176. 74. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), pp. 425, 427; vol. 5, pt. 5 (1983), p. 283. 75. Indeed, the Persian traders who did much of the actual transporting of goods along the Silk Road, especially between the 5th c. and 10th c , were popularly regarded as alchemists in the Chinese capital of Chang-an, due to the magical powders and precious stones in which they traded: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), p. 187. 76. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 179, 470, 473. Nagarjuna's connection with Tara may derive from the fact that she was identified, at some level, with Prajnaparamita, the deified "Perfection of Wisdom," the eponymous sutra of which he wrote the definitive commentary: Tara-Tantram with an introduction by A. K Maitra (reprint ed. Delhi: Bani Prakashan, 1983), p. 19. For a general discussion, see Bharati, Tantric Tradition, pp. 58-84.
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Notes to Chapter Three 77. For Tara, see p. 172 of Hall's edition of the Vdsavadattd, cited in Beyer, Cult of Tara, p. 7; pdrada f-pindaj is mentioned in verse 181. 78. Cited in Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 178-79, 470. Varahamihira's Brhat Samhita, a northwestern text, is the source of Vagbhatta's early reference to mercury. See above, n. 9. 79. Two images of "To-lo" (Tara) are reported by Hsuan-tsang in the early 7th c : Beal, tr., Buddhist Records, vol. 2, pp. 103, 174. Patna had overland trade links with Kathmandu (Alastair Lamb, British India and Tibet, 1766-1910, 2d ed. [London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986], pp. 3-4, also a locus of Tara worship in the early 7th c. (Beyer, Tdrd, p. 5), and with Taksasiia and Khotan, the great hubs of the Silk Road in the northwest. 80. The king of Kanci erected a temple to the "Chinese goddess" in about A.D. 720: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 5 (1983), p. 286. Kanci, the modern Conjeevaram, located forty-three miles south of Madras, was the capital of the Cola empire. Buddhism flowered there briefly, in the period under study here: Lamotte, Histoire, p. 383. 81. Kalydn SaktiAnk (Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1934), p. 227. This was, moreover, a period in which a great number of royal ambassadors were sent by sea from south India to China: one was sent from Kanci, in 720 A.D.: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part 5 (1983), p. 286. 82. Ernst Obermiller, History of Buddhism {Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston, 2 vols. (Heidelberg: Harrassowitz, 1931-32; reprint Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1986), vol. 2, p. 122; Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 8; Dutt, "Notes," p. 637, citing Pag Sam Jon Zang by Sumpa Khan-po Yese Paljor, 2 vols., ed. Sarat Chandra Das (Calcutta: Presidency Jail Press, 1908), vol. 1, pp. 85-86. 83. Lucette Boulnois, Poudre d'or et monnaies d'argent au Tibet (Paris: Editions du C.N.R.S., 1983), p. 124. 84. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), p. 132. Cinnabar also occurs naturally on islands in the Bay of Bengal, perhaps the Andamans, according to the Suleiman Saudagar, a 9th c. travel account cited in Fitz-Edward Hall, Bibliography (p. 363) summarized in the commentary to the RRS [Srtvdgbhatdcdryaviracitah Rasaratnasamucchaya, ed. with Hindi commentary by Dharmananda Sharma (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962)] p. 208). 85. F. E. Treloar, "The Use of Mercury in Metal Ritual Objects as a Symbol of Siva," Artibus Asiae 34 (1972), p. 239. 86. Sharma, commentary to RRS, pp. 186, 208-9; Sharma Ayurved, p. 477; and George Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products ofIndia, 6 vols. (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1889-96), 2d reprint, in 10 vols. (Delhi: Periodical Exports, 1972), vol. 5, p. 232.
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Notes to Chapter Three 87. Needham, Science and Civilisation, roi 5. p t 5 (1983), pp. 280- 86. 88. There was in fact an ancient overland trade route which linked Szechuan with India, via Yunnan, Burma, and Assam, and a highly syncretistic alchemical tradition arose in Burma in about the 5th c : Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2 (1956), p. 174; vol. 5, pt. 3, p. 166. 89. Sadhanamala, ed. Bhattacarya, vol. 1, pp. 193-94; vol. 2, pp. 265-66. Both of these passages are followed by the colophon: "extracted from the land of the Bhotas [Tibet] by the Arya-nagarjuna-padas." Cf. ibid., vol. 2, pp. xlv-xlvi, for a discussion. 90. While the Dragon Kaju was not founded until the early 12th c , the Nyingma sect to which the "ancient" divinity Quicksilver belongs dates from the origins of Tibetan Buddhism itself: Beyer, Tara, pp. 42-43, 54; Michael Lee Walter, The Role of Alchemy and Medicine in Indo-Tibetan Tantrism (Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1980), pp. 44, 58-60, 90, 215, 216. For a brief survey of the Nyingma alchemical systems attributed to the 8th c. founders of Tibetan Buddhism, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava (but which in fact date from the 12-13th centuries), see ibid., pp. 28-29, 182, and idem, "Preliminary Results from a Study of Two Rasayana Systems in Indo-Tibetan Esoterism," in Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hugh Richardson, ed. Michael Aris and Aung San Sun Kyi (Warminster, Eng.: Aris and Phillips, 1979), pp. 319-2491. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 470. Tara was introduced into Tibet by the Nepalese princess Tr'itsiin, the daughter of Amsuvarman and wife of the first great Tibetan king Songtsen gampo (A.D. 617-50), who brought a sandalwood image of the goddess to her husband's palace when she married him: Beyer, Tara, p. 5. 92. The Tibetan Buddhists nevertheless had and continue to have their own alchemical tradition. In addition to the alchemical traditions of the Nyingma schools, the early n t h c. Kalacakra Tantra contains alchemical data. See below, nn. 122-27.
93. Sharma, Indian Medicine, pp. 38-42; Sharma's commentary to the RRS, p. 207; Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part 5 (1983), pp. 187, 217; D. C. Sircar, Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature (Calcutta: Indian Studies: Past and Present, 1967), pp. 74, 89, 106, 108, 128; Andre Wink, Al-hind: The Making of the Indo-lslamic World, vol. 1: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, Seventh to Eleventh Centuries (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), p232; and Watt, Dictionary, pp. 232-33. On mentions of the countries of Paradadesa and Hiiigula-desa in the age of Panini, see Sharma's commentary to RRS 1.68-75 (P- I 2 ) - Kautilya, who hailed from present-day Pakistan, knew of hingula: Arthas'astra 2.13.23.
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Notes to Chapter Three 94. Sharma, commentary to RRS, p. 199; Watt, Dictionary, 5:233. See also Ching-lang Hou, Mommies d'offraiide et la notion de Tresorerie dans la religion chinoise (Paris: Memoires de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1975), p. 124. The richest modern-day deposits in the entire region are found in Khaydarkan (Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas, p. 88), in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, which would correspond to the mercury-rich region of Farghana mentioned in the Hudfid al-Alam 25.45-49 (Hudud al-Alam, "The Regions of the World": A Persian Geography 372 A.H.-982 A.H., tr. and explained by V. Minorsky [1937; reprint ed. Karachi: Indus Publications, 1980], p. 116). 95. Giuseppe Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal n.s. 26 (1930), p. 147. 96. The Tibetan Tanjur contains fifty-nine works by "Nagarjuna" on Buddhist Tantra (listed in Bhattacharya, Sadhanamala, vol. 2, pp. cvi-cviii); Palmyr Cordier lists twelve magico-medical and nonmedical works, in Sanskrit and Tibetan, authored by Nagarjuna (Nagarjuna et I'Uttaratantra de la Supntasamhita [Antananarivo: private printing, 1896], pp. 2-3). To these may be added the works of the Madhyamika philosopher Nagarjuna, as well as numerous other works attributed to "Nagarjuna" by other authors. 97. Bhaisajya-Nagarjuna or Bhadant Nagarjuna, the Keralan author of a medical work entitled Rasavaisesika Sutra (Renou and Filliozat, Vlnde classique, vol. 2, p. 168). 98. Sri Nagarjuna Muni, who, according to the ca. 12th c. Rasopanisat (16.10), discovered a method for whitening copper without sulfur. 99. Albert Griinwedel, "Die Geschichten der vierundachtzig Zauberer (Mahasiddhas) aus dem tibetischen iibersetzt," Baessler-Archiv 5 (1916), pp. 137-228, cited inToni Schmidt, "Funfundachtzig Mahasiddhas," Ethnos 2-3 (1955), p. 120. 100. Max Walleser, "The Life of Nagarjuna from Tibetian and Chinese Sources," in Bruno Schindler, ed., Asia Major, Hirth Anniversary Volume (London: 1923), p. 424. 101. Buddhist legend knows of two Nagarjunas who would have preceded the historical figure I am now discussing. One is Menander's ca. 140 B.C. interlocutor in the Milinda Panha, the "Questions of King Milinda"; the other is a bodhisattva who incarnated himself as the king of Kashmir in about the same period, according to the 12th c. Rajataramgini of Kalhana (1.173, 177)102. According to the 5th c. Chinese pilgrim to India Fa-hsien, Nagarjuna also received the Avatamsaka (or Paramaitha) Sutras from the Nagas. On the Chinese traditions, beginning with Kumarajlva's 5th c. biography of Nagarjuna, see K. Venkata Ramanan, Nagarjunas Philosophy: As Presented in the Maha-Prajnaparamita-
382
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Notes to Chapter Three
Sastra (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), p. 27; and Cordier, Nagarjuna etl'Uttaratantra, p. 2. The term mahdndga has an esoteric meaning: Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 140. 103. The source of the Tibetan legend is the A.D. 1322 Chos hbyung (History of Buddhism) of Bu-ston: Obermiller, History, vol. 2, p. 124. Cf. Bhattacharyya History, p. 239. The Chos hbyung also relates the legend of the gold-making elixir obtained by Nagarjuna from the intermediate continent. See above, n. 82. 104. The Satavahana king whom these sources call Satavahana or Sadvaha-raja was named Gautamaputra Satakarni. Nagarjuna's "Epistle to a Dear Friend" (Suhrllehika) was written to this figure: Venkata Ramanan, Nagarjuna's Philosophy, pp. 27-28. Cf. Krishna Gairola, "Les conditions sociales et religieuses a l'epoque de Satavahana dans I'lnde (le siecle av. J.-C.-He siecle ap. J.-C.)," Journal Asiatique M3 (1955). PP- 281-95. 105. Harsacarita 8.283-84. Banabhatta also states in two places {Harsacarita 415 and Kddambari 393) that the tribal peoples of the Vindhya mountains painted their swords with mercury (pdrada): Sharma, Indian Medicine, p. 217. 106. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), "Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin," p. 162. 107. But Fa-hsien merely reports an account he heard secondhand of the Bhramaragiri monastery, which he never himself saw: Watters, On Yuan-Chwang's Travels, 2:208. Cf. Gairola, "Conditions sociales," pp. 289-90. From the 2d through 6th centuries, the Andhra Vaitulyakas popularized the cult of Prajnaparamita— so closely associated with the philosopher Nagarjuna—in this region: Bhattacharyya, History, p. 222. 108. The meeting occurred near a city called Narasirhha, on the banks of the Chenab River: Watters, On Yuan-Chwang's Travels, vol. 1, pp. 286-87. 109. The sole extant manuscript of this work is its Chinese translation, the Ta chih Tu Lun, completed by Kumarajlva in A.D. 406. See Etienne Lamotte, ed. and tr., Traite de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamita sastra), 4 vols. (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1949-76), vol. 1, pp. 382-83; and Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), pp. 161, 164. n o . Mahayana Samgraha Bhdsya, 221-22. The Abhidharma Mahdvibhdsa recounts a myth of gold making by the 3d c. B.C. Candragupta Maurya and his minister "Chanakya," i.e., Kautilya, the author of the Arthasastrah Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), p. 164. i n . Bhattacharya, Sadhanamald, vol. 2, pp. xliii-xlvi. On Nalanda as a purported Buddhist seat of alchemical learning, see below, chap. 4, n. 120. This Nagar-
juna may also have been the eye doctor mentioned in Chinese sources as early as the 8th c , and reported by Vrnda to have inscribed the instructions for an eye medicine on a pillar at the Buddhist center of Pataliputra (Patna): see below, n. 146. 112. Indeed, Alex Wayman refers to the tantric commentarial tradition (on the Guhyasamajatantra), founded by Nagarjuna, who authored the Pindikrta-sddhatia, the Paiicakrama, and the Astddas'a-patala-vistara-vydkhyd, as the "Arya School." He dates this tantric Nagarjuna, the guru of Aryadeva, to the latter half of the 8th c : Alex Wayman, Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: Arcane Lore of the Forty Verses (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1980), pp. 84, 91, 96. 113. Bhattacharya, Sadhanamald, vol. 2, p. xiv; Dutt, "Notes," p. 638. 114. Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 145. 115. This vague reference may have been inserted to square with another tradition which held that Nagarjuna was first initiated into the tantric or "diamond" path (vajraydna) by the bodhisattva Vajrasattva, at a place called the Iron Tower in south India: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 17. 116. The earliest such prophecy is found in the Sanskrit Mahdmegha Sutra, which was first translated into the Chinese between A.D. 414 and 421 (a relatively early Tibetan translation of this passage, much less confused than those which follow, is found in the Kanjur [8.2]). An expanded version is found in the Lankdvatdra Sutra appendix known as the "Sagathakam," which first appears in Chinese translation in A.D. 513. The final chapter of the Manjusrimulakalpa, which is styled after the Sagathakam prophecy, is datable to about the 1 ith c. A.D. This is followed by the Tibetan prophecies found in Bu-ston's Chos hbyung (1322) and Taranatha's Dam-pa 'i-chos-rin-po-che (1608). This last source further conflates all that had preceded it with both a Sanskrit work entitled the Mahdsiddha-vrttanta and the Grub thob. On these sources, see especially Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," pp. 138-48; Dutt, "Notes," pp. 636, 639; Ariane MacDonald, Le mandala du Manjusrimulakalpa (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1962), pp. 2-3, 20; Watters, On Yuan-Chwang's Travels, vol. 2, pp. 200-4; Obermuller, History, vol. 2, pp. n o , 120-28; and Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India, ed. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, tr. Lama Chimpa Alaka Chattopadhyaya (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1970), pp. 102-10.
117. Carydpada 22, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 39. On these songs, see below, chap. 4, sec. 1. 118. For a list of these works, see Bhattacharya, ed., Sadhanamald, vol. 2, p. cvi. On the dating of the translation of medical and magical works into Tibetan and their incorporation into the Tanjur, see Palmyr Cordier, Vdgbhata et I'Astdngahrdayasamhitd (Besancon: private printing, 1896), p. 11. One of the works of Nagarjuna
!*4
Notes to Chapter Three found in the Tanjur (Derge 1609; Peking 2480) is entitled Kaksaputa: this work, however, is distinct from a ca. 13th c. Hindu work by the same title, which does in fact contain some alchemical data. See below, chap. 5, sees. 5h and 5J. 119. Chattopadhyaya, Tarandthas History, pp. 106, n o , 243; Dasgupta, Introduction, p. 54. 120. On this, see David Seyfort Ruegg, "Sur les rapports entre le Bouddhisme et le 'substrat religieux' indien et tibetain," JournalAsiatique 252 (1964), pp. 82-88. Apart from Harsa, the religious syncretism and tolerance of the Chandela kings of Khajuraho, as well as the Vijayanagara kings, is well documented: for references, see Ro§u, "A la recherche," p. 48. 1 2 1 . James B. Robinson, Buddha's Lions: The Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1979), pp. 88-89, 2o6 > 2 5 6 _ 57- Vyadi's Rasasiddhisastra (Derge 4313) and Dhatuvadasastra are found together with the Sarvesvararasayana in the Ayurveda section of the Tanjur; a work entitled Dhattivada is included in the Tantra section: Edward Todd Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi: Medicine and Alchemy in Buddhist Tantras (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1979), p. 23; and Misra, AyurvedJya, p. 21. 122. The Kalacakra Tantra was composed in north India by a native of Java in the late 10th to early n t h c , after which it was carried to Tibet. Internal evidence indicates that the Vimalaprabha commentary was composed by the same person or people as compiled the Kalacakra Tantra, in either 1012 or 1027: John Newman, "A Brief History of the Kalacakra," in The Wheel of Time: The Kalacakra in Context (Madison, Wis.: Deer Park Books, 1985), n. 13 to p. 85, and personal communication, Charlottesville, Virginia, February 1995. The only other alchemical system that we may qualify as Buddhist is the Burmese zaxvgyi or weikza system, but this, although practiced by Buddhist monks, has a decidedly Taoist stamp to it: see above, chap. 1, n. 6; and above, n. 1 to the present chap. 123. Vimalaprabha 5.230, and Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, pp. 80, 183-84. Mundane mercurial alchemy, whose goals are gold making and the accumulation of power, remains acceptable to the Tibetans, but because the practitioner is dependent upon external elements rather than his own contemplative procedure, it is deemed a lower form of practice: Beyer, Tara, p. 261. In chap, nine of his 14th c. Rasasara the Hindu alchemist Govindacarya speaks of his indebtedness to the Tibetan Buddhists, who he says taught him the art of rangakrsti or rangadruti: Jan G. Meulenbeld, Histoiy of Indian Medical Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1996) [draft of 10 May 1994], p. 879. 124. Compare the Vimalaprabha (5.206) aphorism on the powers of bound and killed mercury to that of RA 1.19; Vimalaprabha 5.204 on testing mercury on metals before consuming it to the classic RA (17.265) statement; the Vimalaprabha
385 Notes to Chapter Three (5.213-15) description of an alchemical mandala to that of the RA (2.49-82); and the Vimalaprabha (5.202b) on a corrosive mineral water called kartari with a discussion of the same in RA 12.205D-206. The Vimalaprabha ( 2 . 1 0 8 - m ) discussion of the dynamics of pranayama closely resembles early Hindu hatha yoga. Cf. Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, p. 77. If anything, the Vimalaprabha data is slightly more archaic than that of the RA: it lists only seven maharasas and six uparasas in contradistinction to the two eightfold categories of the latter Hindu work. 125. Walter, Role of Alchemy, p. 28. Another 14th c. Tibetan work, brought to my attention by David Germano, is the Tshig Don mDzod (Precious words and meanings) of kLong Chen Rab 'Byams Pa (1308-63). This work, citing the Thai 'Gyur (Direct consequence), discusses bcud len in terms similar to those found in Bo dong—i.e., in the form of both "inner" and "outer" alchemy—in II.3.1.b.2.i.a.2.i, "The meditative session which eliminates attachment to food." 126. Bo dong's discussion of "outer" and "inner" alchemy is found in his 14th c. bCud len gyi man ngag bshad pa in Encyclopedia Tibetica: The Collected Works of Bo don Pan-chen phyogs-las-ram-rgyal ed. S. T Kazi (New Delhi: Tibet House, 1970), vol. 2, pp. 507-601. Yet another variety of rasayana is a Tibetan Buddhist practice known by the Mongolian name of tuiurgnikji, which involves the preparation of holy water: J. Deniker, introduction to Gods of Northern Buddhism, by Alice Getty, p. xi, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 39. 127. See also Robert Thurman, tr., The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Understanding in the Between (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), p. 146, on the eighty-four Mahasiddhas as persons who transmuted "demon blood and other bodily substances" into the elixir of immortality. Certain elements of "outer alchemy" have persisted in Tibet, down to the present day. In a discussion of the extraction of the essence (chu len: i.e., bcud len), the present-day Tibetan Buddhist teacher Nankhai Norbu indicates that a specially prepared mercury pill is the "medicine" to be used for overcoming hunger in the "Dharmakaya-style" chu-len of Dzog-chen practice: The Teachings ofNamkhai Norbu, 1982 (typescript), pp. 89, 93.1 am grateful to David Germano for sharing this source with me. 128. Light metaphysics is absolutely essential to the early Buddhist system of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. On this, see Wayman, Yoga, pp. 77-83 and throughout. Cf. Walter, Role ofAlchemy, pp. 28-29, w r i ° notes the parallels between Nying-ma and Nath Siddha practice. 129. This is the case only in the very important and influential philosophical summa of Abhinavagupta: on this see Alexis Sanderson, "Meaning in Tantric Ritual," in Anne-Marie Blondeau, ed., Le Rituel, vol. 3. (Paris: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 56 section, 1996), pp. 15-95. 130. Here, I am using the Weberian—rather than a theological—reading of
386
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Notes to Chapter Three
Notes to Chapter Three
the term soteriology: for a discussion see Gellner, Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest, p. 6. 131. Ancient pilgrimage sites, located at points of contact with China, in eastern and (perhaps) northwestern India, the four pithas are mentioned in the Sadhanamala (ed. Bhattacharya, vol. 2, p. 453). They are quickly internalized to become part of the yogic landscape of the subtle body in Buddhism (Caryapada 2.4; 4.3, in Per Kvaerne, An Anthology of Buddhist Tantric Songs: A Study of the Caryagiti [Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1977; reprint Bangkok: White Orchid, 1986], pp. 76) and later Hinduism (SSS, 1.55-61; 4.118-32, in J. A. Schoterman, The Satsahasrasamhita, Chapters 7-5 [Leiden: Brill, 1982], pp. 64, 141). 132. In particular, the VidyapTtha doctrines and practice of the Hindu Kapalikas were closely paralleled by the Highest Yoga (yoganuttara) Tantras and the Kapalika YoginI cult of esoteric Buddhism: Alexis Sanderson, "Saivism and the Tantric Tradition" in The Worlds Religions, ed. Stewart Sutherland et al. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988), pp. 678-79. 133. This reading of rasayana as the "coming forth (i.e., the extraction) of the elixir" corresponds quite exacdy to the Tibetan bcud len. I am grateful to Chris Wilkinson for this suggestion. See below, chap. 5, n. 84. 134. See below, chap. 5, n. 83. 135. Schoterman, Satsahasrasamhita, p. 6; Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 48. The references to the Kubjikamata are too vague to be verified. For an extended discussion, see below, chap. 5, nn. 85-92. 136. The Siddhas and Siddhaugha are worshipped in the Siddha Cakra which dates from well before the n t h c : Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 81. See above, chap. 1, n. 13.
137. Haraprasad Shastri, A Catalogue of Palm-Leaf and Selected Paper Manuscripts Belonging to the Durbar Library, Nepal, 2 vols. (Calcutta: n.p., 1905, 1915), vol. 1, pp. Ixi, lxiv, lxx, 57, 99-100, i n , 258; vol. 2, p. 80; and Schoterman, Satsahasrasamhita, pp. 5-6, 11-12, 36-39, on the major works of this tradition, all of which date from the 14th c. or before: the Kubjikamata, Cincinimata, Manthanabhairava Tantra, Kubjikanityahnikatilaka, Snmatottara Tantra, and the SSS. Closely identified with the latter two works are the figures of Manthanabhairava and Goraksanatha; mentioned in the Kubjikanityahnikatilaka (NNAMSS no. 3-383; cited in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 68) is a certain Matsyendranatha. Matsyendra appears to identify himself with Siddhanatha in the Jnanakarika (2.1; in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 116); and in the Narada Parana (Uttara khanda 69.25, cited in NSC, p. 23), where it is said that Matsyendra resides in Kamarupa as Siddhanatha: Kamarupa is sometimes identified with the site of CandradvTpa (Bagchi, introduction to KJnN, pp. 29-32). 138. Schoterman, Satsahasrasamhita, pp. 36-39. A manuscript of the Kubjikani-
tyahnikatilaka, in Newari script, is dated to A.D. 1197 by Shastri (Catalogue, i:lxiv, 111-12) and to A.D. 1395 by Bagchi (KJnN, p. 67). Further evidence for the antiquity of the southwestern Indian origins of this cult is found in an inscription, dated to A.D. 1030: Saletore, "Kanaphata Jogis," pp. 18-19. 139. The Grub thob brgyad cu rtsa bzhi lo rgyus is found in vol. 86, pt. 1 of the Tanjur: Palmyr Cordier, Catalogue dufonds tibetain de la Biblioth'eque Nationale, vol. 3, Index du Bstan-hgyur (Tibetain 180-332) (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, 1915), p. 247. Cf. Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 142; and idem., Tibetan Painted Scrolls, vol. 1, pp. 226-27. On the mid-i4th c. dating of the Tibetan translation, see Simon Digby, "To Ride a Tiger or a Wall? Strategies of Prestige in Indian Sufi Legend," in Winand Caellewaert and Rupert Snell, eds., According to Tradition; Hagiographical Writing in India (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994), p. 105. 140. Keith Dowman (Masters of Mahamudra: Sotigs and Histories of the EightyFour Buddhist Siddhas [Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1985], p. 386), maintains that the "Acts" were narrated, and not authored by Abhayadatta; they were translated into Tibetan by sMon grub shes rab. The Tanjur also contains lists of the works of the eighty-four Siddhas. Variants of Kubjika's name are Kucipa, Cubji, Kusull, and Kubjipa: Dowman, Masters, p. 206. 141. The Hindu and Jain Vidyadharas had their Buddhist homologues in the Vidyarajas: Ruegg, "Sur les rapports," p. 83. We have noted Nagarjuna's connection with Tara: as the leader of the Mahavidya goddesses, she is called "Vidyarajfu": Bhattacharyya, History, p. 225. The Vidyadharas (rig 'dzin) serve as intermediaries for the preparation of the elixir in Tibetan sources as well: Walter, Role ofAlchemy, pp. 36-37 and n. 77. 142. My use of Max Weber's terminology is intentional here. After the death of the founder of a given social or religious group, a founder whose personal charisma held the group together, that group's structural cohesiveness must be routinized, i.e., reordered along pragmatic lines, if the group is to survive (unless, of course, a charismatic figure replaces the charismatic founder, which is a rare scenario). 143. Two complementary processes may have been operative here. On the one hand, such names as "Matsyendra" may have been titles bestowed upon persons who had reached a sublime level of initiation (Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," pp. 133-34; cf. John K. Locke, Karunamaya: The Cult of AvalokitesvaraMatsyendranath in the Valley of Nepal [Kathmandu: Sahayogi Press, 1980], pp. 422-27 and notes). On the other, post-i3th c. ascetics may simply have claimed to actually have been the "original" Gorakhnath, etc. Simon Digby terms this "charismatic impersonation" and makes a cogent argument for its prevalence in what may be the most widely circulated unpublished manuscript in the field of South Asian studies: "Encounters with Jogis in Indian Sufi Hagiography," typescript of
,8X
Notes to Chapter Four
Notes to Chapter Four
paper read at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 27 January 1970,
as their founder. On this, see Daniel Gold, The Lord as Guru (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 18, 93-110.
p. 32.
144. Yogasataka: texte medicale attribue a Nagarjuna, ed. and tr. Jean Filliozat (Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1979), pp. vi, 105; idem., Doctrine classique, pp. 10-11; and Palmyr Cordier, "Recentes decouvertes de mss. medicaux sanserifs dans l'lnde (1898-1902)," Le Museon, n.s. 4 (1903), pp. 336-39. If one accepts that the Yogasataka is mentioned in all but name by the late 7th c. Chinese pilgrim I-Ching (Sharma, Ayurved, p. 195), then this is a 7th c. work. More tenable is the hypothesis that this was the same Nagarjuna who, in about the 9th c , edited the Susruta Samhita and added to it the final "Uttara" section. A Tibetan translation of this work is found in the Tanjur. 145. A rare reference to mercury is found in Susruta Samhita 6.35.7. Palmyr Cordier offers a compendium of convincing textual references to support the case that this editor was indeed named Nagarjuna: Nagarjuna et I'Uttaratantra, pp. 1-6; and "Recentes decouvertes," pp. 332-33. Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 76-77, for other "alchemical" or "tantric" Susruta passages attributable to Nagarjuna. 146. Siddhayoga 16.149: nagarjunena likhita stambhe pataliputrake. Prafulla Chandra Ray (A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the 16th Century A.D., 2 vols. [Calcutta: Prithwis Chandra Ray, 1904-09], vol. 1, pp. xxxii, liii, xcii) asserts that kajjali was the active ingredient in this preparation. Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 195, 330. Chinese references to an eye specialist named Nagarjuna begin to appear in the latter half of the 8th c : Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 3 (1976), p. 163. 147. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 229, 290-91, 479. Cakrapanidatta, like Vrnda, also quotes extensively from the Yogasataka: Cordier, "Recentes decouvertes," p. 338. 148. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 291. Following Cakrapanidatta, Vahgasena would, in his Cikitsasarasamgraha, introduce further innovations in mercury-based rasa sastra; but by this time, the tantric alchemical tradition was well established: ibid., p. 295. 149. Ayurvedic works attributed to Nagarjuna include the Jivasutra, Yogasara, Sarasamgraha, Bhesajakalpa, and the Arogyamanjari: Bhattacharyya, History, p. 20; Ray, History, vol. 1, p. xcii; Jean Filliozat, "Liste des manuscrits de la Collection Palmyr Cordier conserves a la Bibliotheque Nationale," Journal Asiatique 224 (1934), pp. 155-73. The Jivasutra and the Bhesajakalpa are preserved in Tibetan translation only: Sharma, Ayurved, p. 195. 150. See below, chap. 5, n. 4. Chapter Four 1. There is an important distinction between "clan" and "lineage": members of the former claim descent from a divine ancestor; those of the latter claim a human
2. Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 668. The Siddha lists "front-loaded" certain elements of the old Siddha cults into their idealized genealogies: Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 79-82. See above, chapter 1, n. 13, and chap. 3, n. 136. 3. HTSL, p. 40. This is particularly the case with the amnaya classification of Kaula traditions, as set forth in the Nepali Cincinlmatasarasamucchaya: Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 66-68. 4. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 203, evoking comments made by Diana Eck in a panel discussion of the American Academy of Religion, New York, 21 December 1983. Cf. Douglas Brooks's discussion (Secret, p. 63) of the structure and function of the sricakra or hiyantra, the greatest of all tantric cosmographs. 5. The texts of the Vidya Pitha are divided into the yamalas, the "Union Tantras" and the saktitantras, the "Power Tantras"; this latter group forms the textual base for the Trika synthesis: Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 668-72. The four literary ptthas are also identified with the four primordial pithas of early Hindu and Buddhist tantrism (Jalandhara, Uddiyana, Purnagiri, and Kamarupa, mentioned in KJnN 8.20-22, which substitutes Arbuda for Purnagiri), with four cakras of the subtle body, four colors, etc.: Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 49-55. 6. Abhinavagupta makes no mention of the amnaya system; it is, however, mentioned in the Kubjikamata (KM), the root tantra of the Western Transmission (Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 66) and the ioth-i4th c. Kularnava Tantra (3.7-10). See below, chap. 5, n. 93 7. It is also along the lines of the amnaya system that Alexis Sanderson organizes his excellent survey, "Saivism and the Tantric Traditions" (especially pp. 680-90). But see Dyczkowski (Canon, p. 87) and Goudriaan (HTSL, p. 14), who characterize this classification as "empty": it is, however, to the artificiality of assigning of geographical coordinates to the four schools that these authors are referring. A fifth ("upper") amnaya would later be added: HTSL, p. 17. 8. Scholars have been attempting for decades to make gum-paramparas out of these lists; such may be possible for certain figures: see, for example Sankrtyayana, "Recherches Bouddhiques," interleaf following p. 218; Bhattacharya, Sadhanamala, vol. 2, pp. xlii-cix; and Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 142. 9. Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, vol. 1, p. 226. 10. Hazariprasad Dvivedi (Nath Sampraday, 3d ed. [Allahabad: Lokabharati Prakasan, 1982], pp. 26-35) reproduces a number of these lists, noting that a total of 148 distinct figures can be generated from them. 11. See above, chap. 3, n. 139. A similar list, dating from A.D. 1513, is found in
J9°
Notes to Chapter Four the Bhaktapur (Nepal) Museum; another has been found in Java, Indonesia: Locke, Karunamaya, p. 422. 12. Sankrtyayana, "Recherches Bouddhiques," p. 220; Dharmavir Bharati, Siddh Sdhity, 2d ed. (Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, 1955, 1968), p. 31. On the history of this work, see A. I. Vostrikov, Tibetan Historical Literature, tr. from the Russian by Harish Chandra Gupta (Calcutta: R. D. Press, 1970), p. 66. This text also lists the caste and country of the Siddhas. 13. The doctrines exposed in these texts correspond to those of the late Vajrayana traditions of the Yoginl-tantras or Yoganuttaratantras: personal communication from Alexis Sanderson, 6July 1992. See above, chap. 3, n. 132. 14. On the dating of this collection, see Dusan Zbavitel, Bengali Literature, History of Indian Literature, vol. 9, fasc. 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1976), pp. 124-25, who also notes that these poems, while tantric, are neither specifically Buddhist nor Hindu. Kvaerne, Anthology, has produced a historical study and quadrilingual (protoBengali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, English) edition of this fascinating collection. 15. R C. Bagchi ("The Cult of the Buddhist Siddhacaryas," Cultural Heritage of India, vol. 4, p. 275) indicates that the enlarged Tibetan translation of these songs is found in volumes 47-48 of the Tanjur. In addition to these, the Tanjur contains Tibetan translations, from the Sanskrit, of a number of other works attributed to these figures. 16. The RA (14.40) evokes, without naming them, twenty-four [Rasa] Siddhas, which I take to be an indication of its relative antiquity. See below, chap. 5, n. 162. 17. Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Fonds Cordier, Sanscrit MSS no. 1222, fol. 3oa.9-3ob.2. Meulenbeld (History, draft of 10 May 1994, p. 971) maintains that these verses, forming as they do a portion of the tippana (commentary) on the work (which begins at fol. 308.3 of the present manuscript), are posterior to the RM proper, and borrowed by the commentator, from the RRS. 18. This author is so named in order to distinguish him from the Vagbhatta the Elder and Vagbhatta the Younger, who authored the Ayurvedic Astangasamgraha and Astangahrdaya, respectively: Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 481-82 (who calls the author of the RRS "Rasa-Vagbhatta"). 19. RRA 3.1.66-69, in SriparvatiputranityanathasiddhaviracitaRasaratnakarantargatas'caturtbo [sic] Rddhikhandah-Vadikhandah, ed. Jivaram Kalidas Shastri, Rasashala Granthamala, no. 9 (Gondal: Rasashala Aushadhashram, 1940). 20. Dharmananda Sharma's edition of the RRS lists fifteen additional Rasa Siddhas in 1.2-7; whereas Janardana Pandeya, the editor of the Goraksa Samhita (introduction to vol. 2, p. chd), presents a list of sixty-seven Rasa Siddhas which he claims to be from the RRS, but of which only the first thirty-three are identical to those listed in Sharma's edition of the RRS (i.2-6a), with the last thirty-four being
»9" Notes to Chapter Four unique to Pandeya's unspecified source. I have not been able to locate an edition of the RRS (there are several) in which such a list appears. 21. One modern author emends the first names on this list into an alchemical guru-disciple lineage (rasesvaraparampara), with certain variations: (1) Adinath; (2) Candrasena; (3) Nityananda; (4) Gorakhnath; (5) Kapali; (6) Bhaluki; (7) and Mandavya: Gananath Sen, Ayurveda Paricaya (Shantiniketan: Visva Vidya Samgraha, 1942), pp. 12-13, 17422. This and the three italicized names that follow correspond to a Tibetan guru-parampara, found in the Grub thob, in which (17) Nagarjuna is the guru of (19) Nagabodhi as well as of (16) Vyadi, Kubjika, and Parikaja. Vyadi is, in turn, the guru of (15) Kambala: Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 142. 23. This is the sole Rasa Siddha on whose name the RRA and the RRS 6.51-53 do not agree. 24. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 835. The only names listed by Carurbhujamisra that do not figure in the HYP list are: Gaja, Khandin (but see Khanda, no. 22 in the RM/RRS [a] list), and Nagadeva. 25. The numbering of Siddhas 28 through 33 in RRS (a) 1.5-7 is identical to that found in RRS (c) 1.5-10. 26. The list is found in the seventh chapter of the Varnaratnakara, ed. S. K. Chatterji and Babua Misra, Bibliotheca Indica, no. 262 (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1940), pp. 57-58. The Varriaratnakara is the oldest known text written in the Maithili language. It was composed by Kavisekharacarya Jyotlsvara, the court poet to King Harisirhha Deva of Simraungadh (Mithila, a kingdom whose ancient borders would fall between modern-day Bihar and Nepal), who reigned from A.D. 1300 to 1321: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 202, n. 1. See below, n. 50. 27. An edited version of this work exists: Anandakanda, ed. Sri S. V. Radhakrishna Sastri. Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Series, 15 (Tanjore: TMSSM Library, 1952). The same work constitutes MSS no. 830 (Ayurveda, no. 2) of the Sri Bhuvanesvari Pith Ausadhasrama (Gondal, Gujarat) collection, now held at Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar. 28. Under the patronage of King Man Singh, the Nath Siddhas of Jodhpur, drawing on Maharashtran sources, also generated lists of eighty-four Siddhas: P. N. Joshi, Maharastra ke Nathpanthiya Kaviyont ka Hindi Kavya (Mathura: Jawahar Pustakalaya, 1976), pp. 216-22, cited in Pandey, Gorakhnath, pp. 104-5. Gorakhnath heads an Oriyan list of sixty-four Siddhas: ibid., p. 105. 29. "Sidh Vandanam" is the first poem in the anthology Nath siddhom kibaniyam, ed. with an introduction by Hazariprasad Dvivedi, 2d ed. (Benares: Kasi Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1978), pp. 1-2. One also finds evocations of the nine Naths together with the eighty-four Siddhas in Muhammad Jayasl's 16th c. Padmavat (Bhar-
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Notes to Chapter Four
ati, Siddh Sahity, p. 28) and in a modern work by the great Nepali Nath Siddha scholar Narharinath, entitled Nav Nath Caurasi Siddh (Benares: Rastriya Press, 1968). Worship of the nine Naths, the eighty-four Siddhas and the Srividya goddess Balasundari concludes the Nath Siddha initiation ceremony: George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis (Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Press, 1938; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982), p. 33.
39. The nine-plus-sixteen configuration is a commonplace of such Western Transmission sources as the Manthanabhairava Tantra; HTSL, p. 56. The number sixteen here is linked to the sixteen aksaras of the Nine Naths, who are one with the sixteen nitya divinities (sodasanityatma): Tantraraja Tantra 2.16. Chapters 42 and 43 of the SSS are entitled "Sri Adinathavaktravatara" and "SrTmulanathavatara," respectively: Schoterman, Satsabasrasamhita, p. 15.
30. Caurahgi is the ninth Nath and Cauraiigi the first Siddha in the AK list. 31. Saletore, "Kanaphata Jogis," p. 19. 32. Revana is listed with eight other familiar Naths in the YSA (ed. Sivanath Yogi, tr. Candranath Yogi [Ahmedabad: Sivanath Yogi, 1924]: on this work, see below, n. 183), pp. 116-35. He figures in modern-day Maharashtran religious posters of the Nine Naths. On the Vlrasaiva Revana Siddha, see Sunyasampadane, ed. and tr. S. C. Nandimath, L. M. A. Menezes, R. C. Hiremath, et al. 5 vols. (Dharwar: Karnataka University Press, 1965-72), vol. 5, p. 374; and Jan Gonda, Medieval, p. 227.
40. Bharadvaja Saihhita, cited without reference in Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 109. The KJriN (8.18) names a Korikanal-pada. See below, n. 54.
33. HTSL, p. 12. 34. A bibliography of Tamil medical-alchemical works, prepared in 1826 by Whitelaw Ainslie, was published by D. V. Subba Reddy in Madras Medical Journal 2:3 (July 1972), pp. 150-55. 35. These names are culled from lists found in Madhavan, Siddha Medical Manuscripts, pp. 20-26. I have Sanskritized the Tamil orthography of these names. On this last group, see Ramana Shastri, "Doctrinal Culture," p. 305, on the eighteen "Mahesvara Siddhas of the Suddha Marga." 36. This list is taken from Shastri's Sanskrit introduction to the AK (pp. 8-9), to which the editor refers as "those renowned as the 18 Siddhas, of which Agastya was the first, among the Dravidas." 37. See above, chap. 3, n. 59. 38. His name is rendered Satnath or Satyanath: he is one of the Siddhas referred to in the "Siddhamata-nirvahanam" chapter (49) of the i4th-i5th c. Saiikaravijaya of Anandagiri (Srisankaravijaya of Anantanandagiri, ed. N. Veezhinathan, with an introduction by T. M. P. Mahadevan [Madras: University of Madras, 1971]). On the SatyanathI (or SatnathI) panth, see Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 12, 178-80. On his identification with Brahma, ibid., and Gorakh Upanisad (in Mallik, SSP, p. 73). On his alchemical works, and the spread of the SatnathI panth to Uttar Pradesh (Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal district) and Karnataka (Dharwar), see NSC, p. 219. The Nath monastery at Mrgasthali, above the Pasupatinath temple in Kathmandu, belongs to this suborder, as does the monastery at Puri (Orissa): Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 65.
41. On the Cincinimatasarasamuccbaya, see Shastri, Catalogue, vol. 1, p. Ixi. Cf. Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 67, 6g, 90, 138 n. 23, and 191 n. 222; and Schoterman, Satsabasrasamhita, p. 39. 42. The Kubjikanitydhnikatilaka presents, in addition to the given names of its teachers, their carya- name, their pfija- name, their gupta- name, their kirti- name, as well as additional names based on fanciful etymologies. Here, Matsyendra is one of the seven names of the fifth (in a series of nine, followed by a series of sixteen) teachers, whose given name is Visnusarman: Bagchi, KJriN, p. 68. 43. Sanderson, "Purity and Power," p. 214 n. n o . See below, chap. 5, n. 93. 44. TA 1.7 (vol. 1, p. 25). For editions, see bibliography. On the identification of Macchanda Vibhu with Matsyendra, see Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 21. In his commentary to this verse, Jayaratha states that "he [Macchanda] is also renowned for having brought down the entire kula-sastra" 45. Sanderson, "Trika Saivism," in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, p. 15. 46. Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 69, 79-82; HTSL, p. 54. On the name of the "northern" Matsyendra's consort, Korikana, see Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 681. 47. Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 89. 48. These are summarized in Locke, Karunamaya, pp. 291-300. 49. Another geographical explanation for this toponym may be found in the Goan site of Candranath Hill in the Salsete taluka of Goa, on the Konkan coast of India, upon whose summit the Saiva temples of Candresvara and Bhutanath are situated. The custodians of these temples were Nath Siddhas—according to their current piijari—until a recent date. On these "lunar" toponyms, see above, chap. 3, nn. 137-38; and below, chap. 5, n. 81. 50. In the course of the 12th c , Jaitugi (1191-1210), the Yadava king of Devagiri; the western Calukya king Somesvara III Bhuloka Malta (1127-38), to whom the Manasollasa, which contains long passages on dhatuvada and rasayana, is attributed; and the 12th c. Kalacuriya kingTribhuvanamalla Bijjana, who had close connections with Basava, the founder of Virasaivism, all claimed to have reduced Nepal to vassal status. The Mallas of Bhaktapur imported brahmins from Bengal to
)94 Notes to Chapter Four
395 Notes to Chapter Four
serve as temple priests: Sylvain Levi, he Nepal, 3 vols. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905; reprint Paris: Toit du Monde & Errance, 1985), vol. 1, p. 364; Sharma, Ayurved, p. 311; Bagchi, "Further Notes," Studies, p. 19. Harisirhhadeva, the Maithili king who commissioned the Varnaratndkara (see above n. 26) in the early 14th c , was obliged to seek refuge in Nepal when his kingdom was destroyed by Muslims. His widow and court found refuge in Bhaktapur with Rudra Malla, where they exerted a profound influence on the political and cultural history of the Kathmandu Valley in the late Malla period. Harisirhhadeva traced his dynastic roots back to Karnataka: Locke, Kanmamaya, p. 422 n. 42.
69). Adinatha's role here closely parallels that of Adi Buddha, who is identified with Vajrasattva in Buddhist tantra: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 195. 57. The Tantra Maharnava passage is cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 206. Cf. Schoterman, 55S, p. 15; and Dyczkowski, "KundalinI," p. 13. 58. Such is explicitly stated in the opening verses of the Sodasanityatantra (i.7b-8a: reproduced in Shastri, Catalogue, vol. 2, p. 148); and Tdrd Tantra 1.24b26, where they are called the Kaula gurus. The names of the Nathas in this and other lists often end in -dnanda, rather than -natha: this is peculiar to the Western Transmission, whose initiates received names with just such endings: Dyczkowski, "KundalinI," p. 1.
51. In terms of mythic geography, the linga at Pasupatinath, the national temple of Nepal, is said to have the same origin as that of Gokarnesvara, located on the coast of northern Karnataka; the Godavari River of Maharashtra state is said to have a branch in Nepal; the Deccan forest of Slesmantaka is transferred to the Kathmandu Valley. In terms of religious institutions, south Indian Saivite brahmins and tamrikas controlled Pasupatinath throughout much of the Malla period. Levi surmises that it was the Pasupata "Yogis" who originally transformed Pasupatinath from an indigenous deity into a form of Siva: Levi, Le Nepal, vol. 1, pp. 364-65. Cf. Axel Michaels, "On I2th-i3th Century Relations between Nepal and South India," Journal of the Nepal Research Center 7 (1985), pp. 69-72. 52. On the Carya songs, see Locke, Kanmamaya, p. 426; on Kubjika, Mark Dyczkowski, "KundalinI, the Erotic Goddess: Sexual Potency, Transformation and Reversal in the Heterodox Theophanies of the Kubjika Tantras," American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 23 Nov. 1992, p. 2 n. 3.1 am grateful to Dyczkowski for providing me with a typescript of his lecture. 53. This passage is found in the fourteenth chapter of the Kubjikamata (London, Wellcome MSS no. g5oi, fol. 69a lines 4-7; fol. 69b, lines 2-3). 54. Manthdnabhairava Tantra, cited in HTSL, p. 55; Schoterman, SSS, pp. 32, 3^38. 55. The nine Naths (divided into divya-, siddha-, and manava-oghas) are identified with the bodily orifices in the Tantraraja Tantra 2.2-5 ( m Woodroffe, Tantraraja, p. 19), which also (2.58-72) lists nine types of consecrations (abhisekas), in which nine gemstones, which correspond to the eight bodily dhdtus, are placed in medicated water: ibid., p. 20. The RC(iz.i) identifies the nine gemstones with the nine heavenly bodies. See below, chap. 8, n. 234. 56. The Tantra Maharnava is quoted without reference by the I7th-i8th c. Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha (ed. Janardana Pandeya, Sarasvatibhavana Granthamala, no. n o [Benares: Varanaseya Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya Press, 1973], pp. 44-45)- I base my dating of this anonymous work on a citation in it (p. 10) of the Saktisangama Tantra, which has been dated to the i6th-i7th c. by Goudriaan (HTSL, p.
59. Schoterman, SSS, pp. 6, 32, 35-38. On this, see also Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 87; HTSL, p. 37; and Bagchi, KJnN, p. 21. On Tamil traditions of nine Sittars, see Madhavan, Siddha Medical Manuscripts, p. 22. 60. Gorakh Upanisad reproduced in Mallik, SSP, pp. 72-75. A similar list is found in the Srinathakathdsdra of Dwarkanath (ed. Narharinath [Benares: n.p., 1951]), p. 4; and Shastri, Catalogue, vol. 2, p. 149. 61. In his commentary to TA 1.6, Jayaratha quotes an unnamed earlier source which in fact makes this identification (vol. 1, p. 24). For an expanded discussion of this complex matter, see below, n. 143; and chap. 8, nn. 33-37. 62. A number of these variant lists are found in Pandey, Gorakhnath, pp. 105-8; Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 206-7. Cf. Dvivedi's valiant attempts (Nath Sampraddy, p. 169; Nath Siddhom, p. 14) to generate a single genealogy from these numerous lists. Kalyani Mallik has attempted to correlate Siddhacarya and Nath Siddha lineages in the same fashion: Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 104. See below, n. 160. 63. The Bengali drama, variously known as the Goraksa Vijaya or Mm Cetan, gives this data: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 209. No manuscript of this Bengali work, variously attributed to Sheikh Faysulla, Kabindradas, Syamdas Sen, and Bhlmsena Ray, predates the 17th c , although it is clearly the product of earlier folk traditions: Zbavitel, Bengali Literature, pp. 189-90. The earliest literary work by this name is the Sanskrit-Maithili play composed between 1412 and 1428 by Vidyapati (Harimohan Misra, ed., Kavikokil Vidyapati-krt Goraksavijay [Patna: Bihar-Rashtrabhasha-Parishad, 1974]) at the behest of Sivasirhha, king of Mithila and descendant of Harisirhha Deva, the king for whom the Varnaratnakara was composed early in the 14th c : Mataprasad Gupta, Pracin Bhdsd natak Sangrah (Agra: Agra University Press, 1970), pp. 29-37. Nepali popular dramas treating similar themes also predate the Bengali works: Bagchi, introduction to KJnN, p. 13. An edition of the Bengali drama (Gorkha-bijay of Bhlmsen Ray) is by Pancanand Mandal (Calcutta: Visvabharati Granthalaya, 1949). 64. YSA, p. 14. This work is attributed to Jnanesvara: see below, n. 183. Cf.
i96
Notes to Chapter Four Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 207 n. 3; and Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 106. Unique to this Maharashtran tradition is an identification of these nine Naths with "nine Narayanas" of the Avadhuta sampraddya founded by Dattatreya. Jfianesvara's commentary on the Bhdgavad Gftd, the Jnanesvart, in which identical data is found in 18.1733-42, is dated to A.D. 1290. 65. Navandthacaritra of Gaurana, ed. K. Ramakrishnaiah (Madras: Madras University Press, 1970), cited in Ro§u, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 154; and Ashok Prabhakar Kamat, Maharastra ke Ndthpanthiya Kaviyom kd Hindi Kdvya (Mathura: Jawahar Pustakalaya, 1976), p. 26. A similar list is found in the Bhdradvaja Samhitd: Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 109. 66. Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, p. 393, reproduced with modifications in Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 77, as chart D. This lineage account is found in the Tahqiqat-i-Cisti: Raya Bahadur Munshi Haradayal Singh, Riport Mardumasumari Raja Mdrvdd Bdbat sanfvat] 1891 Jsvi, Tisardhissd, 2 vols. (Jodhpur: Vidyasal, 1895), vol. 2, p. 231. 67. Additional partial or impressionistic lists of the Nine Naths are also found in the Agni and Brahmdvaivarta Purdnas, as well as a work entitled the Keddrakhanda (not to be confused with the opening section of the Skanda Purdna): Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 109. 68. Sarrigadhara is the name of the author[s] of the 14th c. Sdriigadhara Paddhati and Sariigadhara Samhitd, both of which contain alchemical data, and of which the former also contains data on hatha yoga (and mentions Goraksa in v. 4372). For editions, see bibliography. Sarriganatha is, together with Gorakh and Matsyendra, considered to be a founding guru of the old Nath monastery at Kadri, in Karnataka: see below, n. 74. 69. See especially Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 62-77, an<^ chart A (interleaf between pp. 74-75), which presents twelve alternative listings of the twelve subdivisions of the sect. Cf. Singh, Riport, p. 240; and Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, pp. 12-15; 165-68. 70. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 65, who notes that Bhartrhari's guru is considered by some to have been Jalandhari-pa. 71. Padu Kala is located on the main road between Pushkar and Meerta City, approximately 40 km northwest of Pushkar. Narayan Nath's leadership is contested by the two Naths presently living at the Rathadunda monastery, 15 km to the south, who claim the rightful succession. Inside the temple containing ten of the samddhis in question was also a moldering stack of papers, which Narayan Nath maintained contained the records of the Vairag Panth, a claim I was unable to verify. According to Briggs {Gorakhnath, pp. 122-24), the seat of this suborder is at Pae dhuni, in Bombay. 72. Saletore, "Kanaphata Jogis," pp. 17-19. Cf. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 58. Kar-
»97 Notes to Chapter Four neri or Kanerl-nath is so named because he originally hailed from (Vijayanagara in) Karnataka or Kanara: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, p. 78. 73. See above, chap. 3, n. 138. 74. Bhasker Anand Saletore, Ancient Karnataka, 2 vols. (Poona: Oriental Books Agency, 1936), vol. 1, pp. 94, 377-84; and idem, "Kanaphata Jogis," p. 18 and n. 3. A similar identification, of a Nath Siddha (Matsyendra) with Avalokitesvara, is found in the cult of Lokesvara-Rato Macchendranath in the Kathmandu Valley. 75. Pietro della Valle, Travels, vol. 2, pp. 345-46, quoted in Bhasker Anand Saletore, Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346-A.D. 1646), 2 vols. (Madras: B. G. Paul & Co., 1934), p. 53. 76. Jnanesvart 18.1733-42. The succession he traces is: Matsyendra—Gorakh— Gahanlnath—Nivrttinath—Jfianesvara. Jfianesvara's grandfather, Tryambaka Pant, who purportedly encountered Dattatreya on Girnar, was a contemporary of Goraksa: Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 20. 77. Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 20, and Kamat, Maharastra, p. 288. 78. Listed are Jalandhara, Govindacandra, Kanha, Nagarjuna, Kanerl, Godacflli, and Lul-pa: Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 20. 79. Saletore, "Kanaphata Jogis," pp. 20-21. 80. Charlotte Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali (Doha), Publications de l'lnstitut Francois d'Indologie, no. 12.(Pondicherry: Institut I-Yancais d'Indologie, 1957), p. v; Bharati, Siddh Sdhity, pp. 333-34. On the ca. 14th c. "canonization" and "anthologization" of a corpus of vernacular poetry attributed to Gorakh and many of the other historical nine Naths, see below, chap. 5, sec. 2. 81. Sariigadhara Paddhati, w. 4372-4419 (pp. 662-69 of Peterson's edition). Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 197-98. 82. Nowotny, Goraksasataka, p. 19. 83. Locke, Karunamaya, p. 433. The A.D. 1382 inscription is from Itum Baha; and the 1391 inscription from the "Gorakhnath" cave in Pharphing, fifteen miles south of Kathmandu. This latter inscription commemorates Acintanath's establishment of an image of Gorakh's feet, for worship in the cave. The feet and inscription are currently found outside the cave, inside of which an image of the Tibetan lama Rinpoche now presides. Acintanath's name curiously resembles that of Goraksa's and Caurarigi's guru in the Grub thob: Mlna-pa is alternately referred to as Acinta-pa: Dowman, Masters, p. 81; Bagchi, KJriN, p. 23. 84. The inscription commemorates the installation of five lingas, together with images of "Goraksaka," Bhairava, Afijaneya (Hanuman), Sarasvati, and Siddhi Vinayaka (Ganesa): Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 247. 85. Pdsupata-Sutras (1.2-38), with the commentary of Kaundinya, ed. R. Anan-
)9 8
Notes to Chapter Four thakrishna Sastri (Trivandrum: 1940), cited in Gonda, Medieval, p. 218. The Pasupata use of the term yoga is glossed by Kaundinya as atmesvarasamyoga: ibid., p. 217 n. 16. 86. Gonda, Medieval, pp. 165-66. 87. The scriptures of the Saiva Siddhantins, which were compiled in north (Madhya Pradesh, Kashmir) and south (Tamil Nadu) India between the 7th and loth centuries, are called the Agamas, which traditionally dealt with four subjects: jndna ("knowledge"), yoga (internalized worship), kriya ("ritual," external worship), and carya ("conduct, behavior"). In fact, most of the content of the agamas deals with the last two (and the definition of kriya has in fact been altered from "magic, sorcery" to its present meaning). The Saiva Agamas are subdivided into four classes (Saiva, Pasupata, Soma, and Lakula), with the Saiva group being further subdivided into left-hand, right-hand, and Siddhanta. The pre-A.D. 924 Kiranagama does, however, contain a section on "sixfold" yoga that appears to anticipate teachings of Gorakhnath: Gonda, Medieval, pp. 164-67, 180-81, 189. 88. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. n . Briggs (Gorakhnath, p. 63) gives a figure of eighteen, rather than twelve, original Saivite sects. 89. Sahara Tantra, quoted in Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha, p. 14. Cf. Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 107. 90. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 63; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 11, 180. 91. It is significant that all but four of the twelve celestial images (jyotirlingas) of Siva are located in northwestern India. The exceptions are Mallikarjuna, at Srisailam; Visvanatha at Benares; Vaidyanatha in eastern Bihar; and Ramesvara [-natha] at Ramesvaram. The 2d c. B.c.-2d c. A.D. Kushanas who, based in the Kabul Valley, ruled over much of northwestern India, including the Punjab and western Rajasthan, were the earliest imperial devotees of Siva, to whose name they adjoined the epithet Mahadeva or Mahesvara. 92. This modern list, enumerated by a disciple of Gambhlrnath, a former abbot of the Gorakhpur monastery, is found in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 12. Seven alternative modern lists are given by Pradip Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Natha Cult and Mahdndd (Delhi: B. R. Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 71-73- Cf. Briggs (Gorakhnath, pp. 62-75), who attempts a historical reconstruction of the twelve panths (of which there are actually at least thirty). 93. Briggs (Gorakhnath, pp. 34-38) indicates that the organization of the Nath sampradaya is ideally quite centralized, but that such is not the case in practice. Avedyanath, the current abbot of the Gorakhpur monastery, is a primus inter pares, both on institutional grounds and by virtue of his dynamism and powerful personality. See below, chap. 11, sec. 3. 94. Even if the Nath sampradaya has always been a loose confederation of monas-
399 Notes to Chapter Four tic orders and lineages, certain of its member groups have, at different periods in history, been highly successful in organizing themselves into economic, political, and military powerhouses, using their itinerancy to develop wide-ranging networks of trading and fighting men who were at times capable of removing kings from their thrones and replacing them with princes of their own choosing. See below, chap. 11, sec. 3. 95. In addition to the lineage found in the A.D. 1030 Siddhesvara inscription noted above, oral and written traditions concerning the Juna Akhada establishment at Ayodhya known as "Siddhagiri's monastery" indicate a lineage comprising abbots whose names end in -nath prior to A.D. 1300, after which their names end in -giri, the traditional Dasnami suffix: Peter Van der Veer, Gods on Earth: The Management of Religious Expeiience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre, London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology, 59 (London: Athlone Press, 1988), p. 146. 96. According to Pitambaradatta Barthwal (cited in Bharati, Siddh Sahity, p. 323), Nath was a title, meaning guru or lama in Bengali Vajrayana or "Vajranathl" Buddhist traditions, whence allusions to nath in Saraha-pa and Kanha-pa as "one whose mind is unwavering" (Dohakos'a, pp. 31, 44, 46). 97. Bharati, Siddh Sahity, p. 325. See below, n. 213. 98. The Nimnathis and Parasnathis, both Jain subdivisions, claim descent from two sons of Matsyendra. A number of subdivisions are now in the hands of Muslims (Zafir Plrs, Rawals or Nagnathis) or foreigners (Dhajjannathis). The Sepalas, Sapelas, or Samperas are (generally low-caste) snake charmers. Together with the Bamarg ("left-handed," possibly an offshoot of the Kapalikas) subdivision, they claim descent from Kanipa: Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 63, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74. Cf. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 163-64, 178. See below, chap. 8, n. 193, on the relationship between the Nath Siddhas and the Dasnami Nagas, and chap. 11, sec. 4, for my encounter with a Sapela. 99. On this, see, for example, Pitambaradatta Barthwal, Yog-Pravah (Benares: Kashi Vidyapith, 1946), p. 56, on the subject of Jnanesvara's guru, Gahanlnath. Dvivedi (Nath Siddhom, p. 15) notes that the so-called "Saiva" lineages have generally been more tantric in their orientation than the "Gorakhnathis," whose practices reflect their founder's hathayogic legacy. 100. See Briggs (Gorakhnath, chart A, interleaf following p. 74) for twelve variant lists of the twelve panths; ibid., pp. 62-77, o n their tangled lineages; and Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 166-67, w n o indicates the four different orders who claim descent from Hetunath and the five orders who claim descent from Collnath (Ghoda Coll). The nature of the confusion and competition that arises from too many groups and too few "slots" is illustrated by the reaction of the Nath Siddhas
401
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Notes to Chapter Four of the Rathadunda monastery when I told them I had just come from the residence of Narayan Nath at Padu Kala, Rathadunda's rival for the seat of the Vairag panth: "He's nobody." 101. In the middle of the n t h c , Alberuni describes "Jogis" with pierced or bored ears and ochre robes: Singh, Riport, vol. 2, p. 235. Under the heading of "Jogi," Singh lists six different groups for the case of 19th c. Rajasthan: 1) Naths or Kanphatas; 2) Masaniya Jogis; 3) Kalavells; 4) Aughars; 5) Aghoris; and 6) Rawals (ibid., p. 241). 102. Some hold that Jog; and, in Bengal, Kapalika are the names of scheduled castes precisely because they descend from yogins, perhaps Nath Siddhas, who broke their vows of celibacy. Indeed, this applies to the majority of 20th c. Nath society: i.e., most Naths are noncelibate householders. For (dated) census figures, see Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 4-6, 53, where he notes that the 1881 census counted 350,000 "Jugls" in Bengal. The 1895 census Riport (Singh, vol. 2, p. 235) of Marwar counts 30,213 Jogis, of which 16,427 are male and 13,786 are female. 103. Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 63, 67, and passim; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 163-64, 178. Certain Naths who trace their lineage back to Kanha-pa wear their kundalas through the lobes, rather than the thick cartilage of their ears: ibid., p. 5. Occasionally one can, by looking at a list, discern changes within a lineage or a monastery. So, for example, the pothiratan lineage shows a shift from Kanphata to Aughar leadership in the succession Macchandar—Goraksa—Ratannath—Dharmadas (after which all gurus in the lineage have names with the Aughar suffix of -das): Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 107, citing Rangeya Raghava, Gorakhnath aur unkd Yug, pp. 18-19. 104. These include the periodical Yog Vani, as well as special editions of the same publication, on Gorakhnath, the vernacular poetry (banis) of Gorakh, Nath Siddha hagiography, etc. See bibliography under Srivastav. 105. Yogabija 8, 81, 189 and Goraksasiddhanta Saingraba, p. 12. For other references, see Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 1-3. 106. Aughars suffix their names with -das. Members of the Pa panths, who trace their descent back to Jalandhari-pa, suffix their names with -pa and are for the most part Aughars (but do not use the suffix -das). Members of the Kanthadi subsect suffix their names with -kanthad: Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 33, 67; Locke, Karunamaya p. 431. 107. Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 44-61, and Nowotny, introduction to Goraksas'ataka, p. 53. 108. RA 1.4; KjfnN 16.48. 109. Daulat Ram Shastri, foreword to Siddhinandan Misra's edition of the RHT, p. 11. Modern university-level instruction in rasa s'astra does not fit the traditional
Notes to Chapter Four guru-disciple model of instruction. Such south Indian traditions as those of the Sittars of Tamil Nadu and the astavaidya brahmins of Kerala (on which see Francis Zimmerman's excellent he discours des remedes au pays des e'pices: Enquete sur la me'decine bindoue [Paris: Payot, 1989]) are medical rather than alchemical. n o . RA 2.2, 91. Cf. RRA 1.1.21a, 22a. Kayastha Camunda, the 15th c. author of the Rasasatiketakalika, twice mentions the sampradaya of his guru (4.85, 91). i n . RA 1.27a: na garbhah sampradayatha raso garbho vidhlyate. 112. So, for example, the RA (2.39) advises the alchemist to establish his laboratory in a country where the people are Mahesvaras, i.e., followers of Siva. 113. An alchemical author patronized by Bukku I was Visnudeva, author of the Rasasindhu and Rasarajalaksmi: Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 943Neither he nor his works are mentioned by Madhava. 114. See, for example RU 1.5 and 15.50 and RHT 1.15-17, 20-26, 31-32. See below, chap. 5, nn. 146 and 196. 115. Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 192-93, 254-55. ^ ' s related in the "Prabhulirigallla," of the Bhavisya Purana (cited in Gopinath Kaviraj, Tantrik Vanmay mem Sakta Drsti [Patna: Bihar Rastrabhasa Parisad, 1963], p. 272). 116. Sunyasampadane 21.1-9 (vol. 5, pp. 388-95). The same source (p. 374) relates a similar hostile encounter between Gorakh and Revana, in which the latter's siddhh prove to be stronger than those of the former. See below, n. 167 and chap. 8, nn. 110-12.
117. Raman Sastri's analysis ("Doctrinal Culture," pp. 300-8) totally confuses matters by attempting to identify the "Mahesvara Siddhas of the Suddha Marga" with the Tamil Sittars. Far more useful discussions are Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 19293, 254-55; and the editor's introduction to the RU (with Hindi translation and commentary of Badrinarayan Sarma, 2 vols. [Ajmer: Krsna Gopal Ayurved Bhavan, 1959], vol. 1, p. 12). 118. Rosu ("Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 153), who notes that "according to certain archaeologists, these sanctuaries may have been founded by siddha ascetics who were practitioners of alchemy {rasavada)V In the balance of this article, however, Ro§u tends to discount such claims. 119. Visnudbarmottara Purana 3.40.1-9, translated in Shiva Sheikhar Misra, Fine Arts and Technical Sciences in Ancient India with Special Reference to Somesvara s Manasollasa (Benares: Krishnadas Academy, 1982), p. 101. I have been told that such preparations are still in use, in Rajasthan, where they are called candralepa ("mooncoating"), and in Karnataka, where the carving style is called hemarapanth. 120. Sharma, Ayurved (pp. 471 [photo], 473), maintains that there was an alchemical laboratory at Nalanda, noting the remains of an oven found in the ruins there as evidence. However, Satya Prakash (Pracin Bharat mem Rasayan ka Vikas
40 2
Notes to Chapter Four [Allahabad: Prayag Visvavidyalaya, i960], pp. 835-37), who analyzed the chemical content of a number of metal objects found at Nalanda, found no trace of mercury in any of them. I2i. Personal communication from Dr. Surya Kumar Yogi, Menal, Rajasthan, March 1985. 122. Treloar, "Use of Mercury," pp. 232-33. The ruins of the Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat temple are located in Kedah, Malaysia. 123. Ray, History, vol. 2, pp. xxxviii-xliii. It should be noted that in 1903, shortly after the publication of Ray's first volume, Palmyr Cordier ("Recentes decouvertes," pp. 347-48) described this text under its proper name of Rasendramangala, noting that it was "quite identical to the Rasaratnakara recently used by Prof. P. C. Ray." 124. Levi, "Kaniska," p. 106; Filliozat, Doctrine classique, p. 10; Rliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, p. 416. 125. Dominik Wujastyk, "An Alchemical Ghost: The Rasaratnakara by Nagarjuna." Ambix 31:2 (July 1984), pp. 70-83. 126. See below, chap. 5, sec. 4). 127. See above, chap. 3, sees. 2 and 3, for the historical background to the RM's dramatization. 128. Ray, History, vol. 2, pp. xli-xlii. He further claims (ibid., p. liii), on the basis of a manuscript colophon, that Govinda, the author of the RHT, "was evidently a Buddhist" in spite of the fact that this text, too, is thoroughly Hindu. 129. Ibid., pp. xlii-xlvi. Ray's note, in which he speaks of his indebtedness "for the passages cited here" to Shastri, "who has wended his way through the bulky MS," does not state where in the Kubjikamata Shastri allegedly found these passages: they are certainly not in his Catalogue (vol. 1, pp. lxxviii-lxxx), which Ray also cites. Ray's attribution of the description of six-times killed mercury to the Kubjikamata is repeated by Mircea Eliade (Forgerons et alcbimistes, revised ed. [Paris: Flammarion, 1977], pp. 112-13) a n ^ White ("Why Gurus Are Heavy," Numen, 33 [1984], p. 52). His misconception, that many of the early alchemical tantras were Buddhist, is followed by O. P. Jaggi, Yogic and Tantric Medicine (Delhi: Atma Ram and Sons, 1973), pp. 133-34. 130. Here, it is worthwhile to note that a later Indian historian of alchemy, Bhudeb Mookerji, states in the introduction to volume one of his five-volume Rasajala-nidhi, that "it is earnestly hoped that Dr. Sir P. C. Ray will live to bring out a revised edition of his book, which contains so many misinterpretations . . . due, no doubt, to a hasty and superficial study of the subject." 131. Here, Sharma (Ayurved, p. 474) miscites pp. 125-26 of the 1956 revised one-volume edition of Ray's History, which are a discussion of Tamil Sittar alchemy. Khilji's sustained invasion of Bengal began in A.D. 1202.
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Notes to Chapter Four 132. Sachau, Alberunis India, vol. 1, p. 22. That Alberuni did not consider alchemy to be a science, but rather a popular superstition is made abundantly clear: ibid., vol. 1, p. 193. 133. As I have argued (see above, chap. 3, nn. 122-24), the early n t h c. Vimalaprabha commentary to the Kalacakra Tantra contains alchemical data that is quite identical to that of the Hindu RA, which belongs to the same century. 134. See below, chap. 5, nn. 22-26. 135. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 3 1 0 - n , 402-3. 136. Smiigadhara Samhita, ed. and tr. K. R. Srikanta Murty (Benares: Chaukhambha, 1984), pp. xiii-xiv. 137. Carl Ernst, "The Arabic Version of'The Pool of the Water of Life' (Amrtakunda)," has identified forty-five manuscripts of the Arabic translation of this work and notes that there exist two Persian translations, two Turkish translations, and one Urdu translation of this work. One manuscript makes reference to historical events transpiring in the early 13th c : personal communication from Carl Ernst, Chapel Hill, N.C. November 1994. See below, n. 153. 138. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part 5 (1983), p. 285; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 22. For other cases of Hindu-Muslim mystic syncretism in Bengal, see Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 157-87, on the Bauls of Bengal. See Zbavitel, Bengali Literature, pp. 189-90 on the dating of this literary work in Bengali. 139. Krsna Kumar Bali, Tilla Goraksanath (Haridwar: Pir Kala Nath Trust, 1983), p. 17 and throughout. Cf. Bharati, Siddh Sahity, pp. 325-26. 140. Thus Bandyopadhyay (Nath Cult, p. 43) states (misquoting Sukumar Sen, History ofBengali Literature, with a foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru [New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, i960], p. 42) that "there is no doubt that the Nath cult originated in Eastern India, probably in Bengal, long before the fourteenth century when we ftist get a reference." For an informed discussion of such theories and their pitfalls, see Bharati, Siddh Sahity, pp. 323-24. Cf. Pandey, Gorakhnath, pp. 18-19. 141. Bharati, Siddh Sahity, pp. 335-38. See Vaudeville (Kabir Granthavali (Doha), pp. viii-ix; xviii-xx) for the specific terms sunya and sahaja. 142. Chattopadhyaya, ed., Taranathas History, p. vii. 143. See above, chap. 3, n. 143, and below, chap. 8, nn. 33-37. Lui-pa is the author of six Buddhist works preserved in the Tanjur: Chattopadhyaya, Taranathas History, p. 393. 144. Chattopadhyaya, Taranathas History, p. 320. Taranatha also maintains that Goraksa was born as a Buddhist by the name of Anarigavajra, and was the son of the Pala king Gopala. 145. See above, n. 63. 146. He calls Jalandhari-pa his guru in song no. 36; he refers to kundalas (which
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he identifies as the sun and moon, i.e., the two peripheral channels of the subtle body) and the unstruck sound in song no. n : Kvserne, Buddhist Tantric Songs, pp.
phenomena, in the colophon of which the author identifies himself as Acarya Ghorakha. Curiously, the text that follows (Derge 2378) bears the same title as this one and is attributed to Caurahgi, that Siddha with whom Goraksa's legend becomes confused in Tibetan hagiography. I am grateful to Steven Weinberger for translating this text from the Tibetan. On the carya songs attributed to Ghoraksa in the Tanjm; see above, n. 15.
119, 215.
147. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, p. 7; Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, p. 390; Moti Singh, Nirgun Sdhity: Samskrtik Prstbabbumi (Benares: Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1963), p. 52. 148. Dowman, Masters, pp. 81-90. Taranatha's is a case of mistaken identity: Nowotny, Goraksas'ataka, pp. 24-25; and Chattopadhyaya, Tdranathas History, p. 227. Cauraiigi gives the same account of himself in verses 1-2 of the ca. 14th c. Pran Sdnkalf (in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 19); but the Gmb thob myth is clearly the source of later Hindu legends of Puran Bhagat of the Punjab: ibid., p. 227; and Nowotny, Goraksas'ataka, pp. 24-25. While the Tibetan sources make Caurahgi and Goraksa Pala princes of Bengal, the vernacular Indian traditions make Caurangi the son of king Salivahana of Sialkot (Jhelum dist., Punjab, Pakistan). The accuracy of this tradition is attested by a reference Gahanlnath (13th c.) makes to Gorakh as the guru of Plpa: in the 19th c. Punjabi songs of Puran Bhagat, Plpa is the adoptive father of Lona, the "Potiphar's wife" of this story: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 388; Temple, Legends, vol. 2, pp. 388-89. See below, chap. 9, sec. 7, for an extended discussion of this legend. 149. This is Rahul Sankrtyayana's theory ("Recherches Bouddhiques," p. 228). On the Jogi and Kapalika subcastes, see Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 368-69; and Briggs, Gorakbndth, pp. 4-6, 53. As far as conversion to Islam from Hinduism is concerned, it has been hypothesized that renouncers who were dispossessed by their religious orders for having broken their vows of celibacy were eventually driven to embrace Islam. Here, their status changed from dispossessed Hindu (called "Jogi" in this case) to Islamicizedy'«/tf/.v7 (Kablr belonged to this group, which straddled Hinduism and Islam). These Islamicized subcastes were then converted, en masse, by the Nath Siddhas, which would thus account for the large numbers of householder Naths: personal communication from Nagendranath Upadhyaya, Benares, March 1985.
153. On this date, see Digby, "Encounters with Jogls," p. 34. 154. This is a role Goraksa continues to play in rural Bengal: for a study, see Sarat Chandra Misra, "On the Cult of Goraksanath in Eastern Bengal," Journal of the Department of Letters (University of Calcutta) 14(1927), pp. 1-41. 155. Pandey, Gorakhndth, p. 60. See above, n. 74, for a possible parallel development at Kadri, in Karnataka. 156. Ernst Bruce Alexander, Statistical Description and Historical Account of the North-Western Provinces of India [Gazetteer, Northwest Provinces, vol. 6] (Allahabad: Northwest Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1881), pp. 371, 436. Cf. Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 61, citing the Citravali of Usman Kavi without citation. The same author states (ibid.) that "Allah ud-Din Khilaji destroyed the famous temple of Gorakhnath in the 13th century," which is chronologically impossible. Its destruction by Aurangzeb in the 17th c. (ibid.) is more likely based in historical fact. 157. The ca. 13th c. MBhT, a Sakta Tantra and the sole text with any significant alchemical content to have come out of eastern India, makes no mention of any of the Siddhas. 158. Edward C. Dimock, Jr., The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-sahajiyd Cult of Bengal (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. Reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991), pp. 249-70. 159. A ground-breaking survey of the often sympathetic relations between the Nath Siddhas and Sufis in medieval India is Digby, "Encounters with Jogls." See also Gold, Lord as Gum, pp. 207-8; and Dominique-Sila Khan, "L'Origine ismaelienne du culte hindou de Ramdeo Plr," Revue de VHistoire des Religions 210 (1993), PP- 2 7-47! ar>d ^em, "Ramdeo Plr and the Kamadiya Panth," in Folk, Faith, and Feudalism, ed. N. K. Singhi and Rajendra Joshi (Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 1995), pp. 295-327.
150. If at times their work appears to have Hindu overtones, this is because they cribbed much of their material from such Hindu tantric texts as the "Yoginlsamcara" of the Jayadratbayamalatantra, the Picumata-Brabmaydmalatantra and the Tantrasadbhava. On this and other resemblances between the esoteric Buddhism of the Highest Yoga Tantras (yogdmittara tantra) and the YoginI cults of the Kapalika Vidyapltha, see Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 678-79.
160. Many vain attempts have been made to generate biographies of the major Naths out of the mass of legend on their subjects: Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 191-92, 218, 367-98; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, pp. 149-80; idem, Nath Siddhom, pp. 4-21; and Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 228-50.
151. Chattopadhyaya, History, p. 227. 152. Vayutattvam Bhdvanopades'a of Ghoraksa (Tanjw; Derge 2377; Peking 3219) is less than one folio in length. It is a poetical description of a number of hathayogic
161. The entire Gangetic Plain, from Bengal in the east to Jalandhara (Punjab) in the northwest, was politically unified under the Pala kings of Bengal between the 8th and 12th centuries: Joseph E. Schwartzberg, ed. A Historical Atlas of South
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Asia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978; second impression, with additional material, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 146, pi. xiv. 162. Vdsavadatta, verse 87; and Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 153. The RRA (4.8.1-185: Srinityandthasiddhaviracita (Rasaratndkardntargatas caturtha) Rasayanakhandah, ed. Yadavji Trikamji Acharya [Benares: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pustakalaya, 1939]); and the AK(i. 12.1-200) contain long descriptions of Srisailam. See also Arion Ro§u, "Mantra et Yantra dans la medecine et l'alchimie indiennes," Journal Asiatique, 274:3-4 (1986), pp. 251, 255.
aya II (A.D. 1419-47): Sunyasampadane, foreword to vol. 1, p. ii. See also Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 255.
163. The Kapalikas, who had important ties with Srisailam, were also especially strong in the south, following the 10th c. Prior to that, they may have been centered in the Himalayan regions, where their practices of ritualized sex strongly influenced the nascent tantric tradition, as documented in the ca. 9th c. Jayadratbaydmala Tantra: Gonda, Medieval, pp. 165, 216; Lorenzen, s.v. "Saivism: Pasupatas," in Encyclopedia ofReligion; idem, "New Data," in Hiltebeitel, ed., Criminal Gods, p. 231; and idem, Kapalikas, pp. 106-8. 164. The oldest existing edifice on the peak of Srisailam itself is the Mallikarjuna temple, which houses ihejyotirlinga of the same name. This temple dates from the 1 3th-14th c: Rosu, "A lii recherche," p. 34. \ Mallikarjuna is located at Sriparvata in the 6th c. Vdsavadatta: Hall, Vdsavadatta, p. 11. 165. Mdlati-Mddhava (Bbavabhutis Malati-Mddhava, with the Commentary ofjagaddhara, 3d ed., M. R. Kale, ed. [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967]), act 5, w. 1-2. See also Lorenzen, Kapalikas, p. 95, and below, chap. 5, n. 84. 166. Sastri, "Doctrinal Culture," p. 304; Bhattacharyya, History, p. 284. The Tungabhadra, a branch of the Krishna or Kistna River, flows past Alampur (Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh), the western "gateway" to Srisailam (Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 155), and on to the modern Hampi (Bellary district, Kamataka), i.e., the capital of Vijayanagara, whose kings were, in the 14th17th centuries, great patrons of the Virasaivas. Kadri, the great "Yogi" monastery, was also located within the borders of this empire: Saletore, Social and Political Life, vol. 2, p. 53. In more common usage, the term Antarvedl referred to the Doab, the region lying between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in modern-day south central Uttar Pradesh: D. C. Sircar, Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990), pp. 303-7. 167. This is not the same text as that portion of the Bhavisya Purdna cited above in n. 116. In the Sunyasampadane, a Vlrasaiva source, Allama Prabhu condemns Gorakh's alchemy in no uncertain terms: Ramanujan, Speaking of Siva, p. 147. While Allama Prabhu lived in the 12th c , this work, which casts him as a contemporary of Gorakh, was compiled during the reign of the Vijayanagara king Devar-
168. Kardaswamy, History, p. 354. The lihga at Pasupatinath, the "national shrine" of Kathmandu and Nepal, is also called paraspati, transmutational. Tradition holds that a man wearing lead bracelets once purposely embraced the linga. The bracelets were turned to gold, but the man, who had come to worship out of desire rather than devotion, was physically unable to leave the temple sanctum until he had removed the bracelets: personal communication from Purna Giri, Hardwar, March 1984. 169. Kardaswamy, History, p. 330. Korakkar's south Indian samddhi is located at Poiyur (Thanjavur district), a village near Nagapattinam on the Tamil coast: ibid., p. 354. A Nath Siddha establishment is located at the same site: personal communication from N. Sethu Raghunathan, Madurai, January 1985. 170. Korakkar Malai Vagatam (Madurai: G. Ramasamkykone Booksellers, 1968), cited in N. Sethu Raghunathan, "Contribution of Yoogi Munivar for Siddha System of Medicine," Heritage of the Tamils: Siddha Medicine, ed. S. V Subrahmanian and V. R. Madhavan (Madras: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1983), p. 616. 171. Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 153. On Nityanatha's probable membership in the Nath order, see below, chap. 5, n. 41 and sec. 4I1. 172. B. Rama Rao and M. V Reddy, "A Note on Goraksanatha and his Work Yogadtpikd" Bulletin of the Indian Institute of the History of Medicine (Hyderabad) 12 (1982), pp. 34-35. Following this episode, Gaurana goes on to relate the battle between the diamond-bodied Gorakh and the divine-bodied Allama Prabhu: see above, n. 115. The so-called Yogadtpikd, as these authors describe it, is clearly an Old Kannada version of the Hathayogapradipikd of Svatmarama, with added material on the transmutation of base metals into gold: ibid., p. 37. See below, chap. 5, n. 117. 173. Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 154. Another Hindu version of this legend is found in the Kathdsaritsdgara (41.57): Ocean, vol. 3, pp. 252-56. Cf. Watters, Yuan-Cbwang, vol. 2, pp. 201-6. See above, chap. 3, nn. 106-107. 174. Watt, Dictionary, vol. 5, pp. 232-34. Cf. Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," pp. 155-56. 175. The Vijayanagara kings (A.D. 1336-1565), although based at Hampi, were devotees of Siva Mallikarjuna at Srisailam: Konduri Sarojini Devi, Religion in the Vijayanagara Empire (New Delhi: Sterling, 1990), pp. 88-89, I 7 6 . ' 8 o 176. Rosu, "A la recherche," pp. 44-46, 52. See above, chap. 3, n. 47. 177. NSC, pp. 215, 217; idem. "Gorakh" Visesdnk, pp. 266-68. There are prob-
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Notes to Chapter Four lems of chronology here. Satyanath is associated with the 16th c. Garhwali king Ajaypal; Anandagiri, if he is the same hagiographer of Sarikara as the Anandagiri who authored the Sankaravijaya, is a i4th-i5th c. author; and Sankaracarya himself is an 8th century reformer of Hinduism. 178. KJriN 16.5-7; KM 2.5-6; KPT 15.2 and 16.9 (pp. 356 and 367 of Jivananda Bhattacarya, ed. Indrajalavidyasamgraha (Calcutta: V. V. Mukherji, 1925) Cf. Pandey, Gorakhnath, pp. 66-68. 179. Srivastav, ed. "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 119. 180. Like the Calukyas of KalyanI (ioth-i2th c.) before them, the Yadavas of Devagiri (A.D. 1175-1318) ruled an area comprising Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the western Deccan (encompassing the region of the Andhran Srisailam): Schwartzberg, Historical Atlas, pp. 147-48, pi. xiv.3). 181. While Bhaskara's is an extremely common name, it may well be that the same Bhaskara who was eulogized by Siddha Nagarjuna in the opening verse of the i2th-i3th c. Yogaratnamala, was also the author of a lost alchemical work entitled the Rasendra Bhaskara: Priyavrat Sharma, Nagmjuna's Yogaratnamala -with the Commentary ofSvetambara Bhiksu Gunakara (Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1977), pp. 9-11; and idem, Ayurved, p. 230. 182. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 310-12, 402-7, 474, 482, 697. A precious document which records the royal patronage of Ayurvedic physicians and alchemists by the early Yadavas is a passage from the Sahgitaratnakara (1.2-13), a treatise on music by Sarftgadeva, the grandson of Bhaskara: the passage is reproduced in Sharma, Ayurved, p. 311. 183. This is the Yogisampradayaviskrti (YSA). In an introduction to the YSA, (p. ca), Candranath Yogi states that his is an abridged Hindi translation of Jnanesvara's translation (into "Maharashtran") of a Bengali original written shortly before his time. He gives no explanation for this "Bengali original," which I find implausible, given that the names of the Nath Siddhas treated in the work correspond to those found in western Marathi rather than Bengali hagiographic traditions. At this point, I am unable to confirm Candranath Yogi's assertion that this is in fact a work (or translation) originally composed by Jfianesvara; however, apart from some mentioned in a number of appendices, none of the persons figuring in the work appears to be later than Jnanesvara's late 13th c. dates. The manuscript used by Candranath Yogi is dated to A.D. 1773-74. 184. Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 65. 185. The Tantra Maharnava is a work which locates the Nine Naths at eight of the nine cardinal directions. Nagarjuna's Godavari location corresponds to the southern quadrant: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 206. See below, chap. 5, n. 82.
Notes to Chapter Four 186. Kaviraj, Bharatfy, vol. 1, pp. 151, 191-92, 197, 203; Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 1 2 1 .
187. Srivastav, "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 119. The 7th c. Bana mentions that plantain flourishes along the shore of the Godavari: Sharma, Indian Medicine, p. 145. 188. Chinese and Persian reports of exceptional Indian waters date back to the middle of the 9th c. Like mercury and sulfur, sal ammoniac occurs naturally in regions of geothermic activity: Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), pp. 197-98, 435-37. 189. RA 12.236-39. Cf. yet another reference to a Srisailam, where "rock" or "peak water"—sailodaka—is found, as well as a long list of sources of low-grade "rock water," most of which are in southwestern India (RA 12.282-87). 190. Kadallmanjunatha Mahatmya (p. 33), quoted in Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 66. 191. The reference is found in RRS 16.126. See above, nn. 134-35, an£ l chap. 5, n. 269. One could, however, read RA 12.236 ("on the southern path, in the direction of Death") as an indication that the author was from somewhere further to the north. However, such is a commonplace way of speaking of India south of the Vindhyas (Yama, Death, is the regent of the southern quarter). Prior to the Yadavas, the Calukyas of KalyanI ruled this region. While the Manasollasa (A.D. 1131), written by or for the Calukya monarch Somesvara III ("Bhulokamalla"), contains long passages on medicine (1.13 5-307), sorcery for locating buried treasure (2.332-61), transmutational alchemy (2.377-94) and the testing of gemstones (2.378-536), it shows no direct influence from the RA, which dates from a century earlier: Manasollasa of King Bhuloka?nalla Somesvara, 3 vols, ed. G. K. Srigondekar, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 28, 2d ed. (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1967). 192. Sharma, Yogaratnamala, pp. 8-10, 13; idem, Ayurved, pp. 310-11, 402. See below, chap. 5, nn. 60 and 251. 193. Sharma, Yogarattiamala, pp. 14-17. 194. Phyllis Granoff, "Jain Biographies of Nagarjuna: Notes on the Composing of a Biography in Medieval India," in Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, eds., Monks and Magicians: Religious Biographies in Asia (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1988), pp. 48-49. 195. The "Satavahana" king is an obvious carryover from Buddhist traditions. Palittanakapura is to be identified with both the modern Palitana and Mount Satrufijaya, as well as Vallabhi and Pattan, and by extension, Mount Dharik. 196. Summarized in Granoff, "Jain Biographies," pp. 48, 50-51. The Prabandhacintamani calls the elixir "ten-million transmutation mercury" (kotavedhi-rasa); the "grinding of mercury" (parada-mardana) is the second alchemical samskara: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 153.
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197. See below, chap. 7, n. 69. 198. Granoff, "Jain Biographies," p. 52. Dhank is located sixteen miles (by road) northwest of Upaleta (Rajkot district, Gujarat). Dominik Wujastyk also describes an image of Nagarjuna—together with that of a figure named "Barot" (who, he was told, wrote Nagarjuna's biography)—which, located in a private dwelling in the village of Dhank itself, is receiving active worship: letter dated 24 February 1993. 199. According to Shantilal Pranjivan Joshi, who wrote the forward to the 1959 Ajmer edition of the RU(p. 11), it was with the alchemical gold produced at Valabhl that the Jains financed the building of the ioth-i4th c. Dilwara temples of Mount Abu, considered by many to be the most beautiful examples ofJain temple architecture in India.
207. Nagarjuna's toponym may correspond to Patan, a city in northern Kathiawar that has been continuously inhabited since the period in question and near to which is a mountain (Osam) that has long been a site connected to the practice of Ayurvedic medicine: Kalyan Sakti Ank, pp. 661, 664. The Pattan that Dharamnath brought down was located in southern Kacch, over two hundred miles to the southwest. Both toponyms are, however, within Gujarat, as are a number of other toponyms ending in -patan.
200. Valabhl had been the capital of the Maitraka kings, whose charters date from A.D. 502 to 766. Popular and bardic traditions, which maintain that Valabhl fell in A.D. 524, are chronologically impossible: D. C. Sircar, The Guhilas of Kiskindha (Calcutta: Sanskrit College, 1965), pp. 24-25. On Amru ibn Jamal, see Historical and Cultural Chronology of Gujarat, ed. M. R. Majumdar et al., 2 vols. (Baroda: University of Baroda, i960), vol. 1, p. 226. 201. For a complete rendering of this account, see below, chap. 9, sec. 8. 202. Sachau, AlberunisIndia, vol. 1, p. 193. 203. Personal communication from Dominik Wujastyk, London, May 1992. 204. Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 116-17. This leads into another legend concerning Dharamnath and Dhinodar hill, the site of an important Nath monastery to the north of Bhuj, the capital of Kacch: Dalpatram Pranjivan Khakhar, "History of the Kanphatas of Kacch, Indian Antiquary 7 (1878), pp. 47-53. These accounts further resemble the myth of the fall of Krsna's capital, Dvaraka, which was swallowed up by the ocean shortly after the conclusion of the great Mahabharata war: Dvaraka is located across the Gulf of Kacch from Mandavi. The fact that the Kathiawar peninsula and Kacch are both low-lying regions with swampy, shifting coastlines is no doubt also a source for accounts of "fallen" cities of Pattan. See the maps of Gujarat in Schwartzberg, Atlas, pp. 8-32, which indicate that the Kacch region has been periodically submerged by the ocean over the past millennia. 205. Walter Ruben, Eisenschmiede und Ddmonen in Indien, Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, 37, suppl. (Leiden: Brill, 1939), p. 205, citing Linga Purana 1.97.1-42. 206. KPT 2.40: asya purvamevayutam japtva tato 'nena mantrena pasanam saptabhimantritam krtva pattane vd grame ksipet va tena pasanena vrksam tadayet/ grama madhye aprarthitam sukhabhogam prapnoti. Cf. KPT 1.33 (in Bhattacarya, ed, lndrajalavidyasamgraha, pp. 267, 280).
208. Granoff "Jain Biographies," p. 60, citing Jyoti Prasad Jain, "Jain Authors and Their Works," Jaina Antiquary 33 [1980], p. 27. Granoff does not give the title of this work. 209. Paduha-doha no. 126, cited in Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 50. Cf. Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 58-60. 210. Elizabeth Sharpe, An Eight-Hundred Year Old Book of Indian Medicine and Formulas, Translated from the Original Very Old Hindi into Gujarati Character and Thence into English (London: Luzac & Co, 1937; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1979), p. 6. A i2th-i4th c. alchemical text, entitled Rasaratnasamuccaya, was the work of the Jain monk Manikyadeva Suri: J. C. Sikdar, ed. and tr., The Rasa-ratna-samuccaya ofManikyadeva Suri (Jaipur: Prakrta Bharati Academy, 1986), p. i. It in no way resembles Vagbhatta IPs alchemical work of the same tide. 211. RC 2.1; RPS 13.15. See below, chap. 5, n. 225. 212. Watt, Dictionary, vol. 5, p. 233. The Jamnagar alchemical experiment was described to me by Siddhinandan Misra: personal communication, Benares, March 1985. 213. John Cort, "Twelve Chapters from The Guidebook to Various Pilgrimage Places, the Vividhatirthakalpa of Jlnaprabhasuri," in Phyllis Granoff, ed., The Clever Adulteress and the Hungry Monk: A Treasury ofJain Literature (New York, Mosaic Press, 1990), pp. 251-58; and Skanda Purana 7.2.6.8. Girinarayana, the Sanskrit name for this site, reflects a link with the cult of Dattatreya as an incarnation of the god Visnu. In the YSA, the nine Naths are identified with nine Narayanas, and led by Dattatreya. The names of the nine Narayanas are found in the Bhavisya Purana (cited in Rajesh Dikshit, SriNavanath Caritra Sagar [Delhi: Dehati Pustak Bhandar, 1969], pp. 13-14); the nine Naths mentioned there are those currently revered in Maharashtrau traditions. 214. Watters, Yuan-Chwang's Travels, vol. 2, pp. 248-49; Banabhatta, Harsacarita 8.226. The YSA states that Matsyendra ended his career at Girnar: Mallik, SSP, p. 10. The early 19th c. Natha Caritra (ASL MSS no. 1573/1645) of Man Singh, king of Marwar, devotes no fewer than fourteen chapters (1.2; 2.1-13) to Girnar; most of these concern the travels of Goplcand to the site and the meetings he had with
41-
4«3
Notes to Chapter Four
Notes to Chapter Four
Dattatreya, Matsyendra, and other Nath Siddhas there. Man Singh was married to a Gujarati princess. See also Kaviraj, Bharatiy, vol. i, p. 197, on the Aghori Baba Kinnaram, who had a vision (dars'an) of Dattatreya on Girnar in 1724. 215. Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 110-19; Pandey, Gorakhnath, pp. 63-64. 216. Personal communication, Kathmandu, October 1984. See below, chap. 11, sec. 4, for the fruit of my searches. The geographical remoteness of the sites of Girnar and Abu may also account for their perennial frequentation by Nath Siddhas and members of other tantric orders whose practices were viewed as abominable by mainstream Hindu society. On the terrible practices of the Aghoris at these two sites, see H. W. Barrow, "On Aghoris and Aghorapanthis," Anthropological Society of Bombay 3:4 (1893), pp. 199, 211-14, 246. 217. A number of major Nath sites are called "[Gorakh] Tilla," an alloform of "Tiled": the most important of these is found above Jhelum (Jhelum district, Punjab, Pakistan): Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 101-3. Formerly, the Nath Siddhas had an important monastery called Gorakh Tilla in Benares: ibid., p. 84. 218. At Mount Abu, "Goplcand's cave" is located near the top of the central peak (above it is a temple to the goddess Camunda) of Acalgarh; in the pass between this and the eastern peak is a shrine to Gorakh. At Girnar, it is Bhartrhari whose cave (an image of Gopicand is there as well) is located in a dip between the first and second peaks and Gorakh whose dhfini is found atop the central peak. 219. See below, chap. 10, nn. 125-30. 2 20. Cannabis, called vijaya "victory" in a number of tantric texts is, according to the Tara Tantra (3.1-11), essential to ecstasy. The 7th c. south Indian Tirumular sings the praises of marijuana in his Tirumantiram (Ro§u, "Yoga et alchimie," p. 370); and the kanja plant (ganja, marijuana) is called "Gorakh's root," korakkar-muli, in Sittar traditions (Kardaswamy, History, p. 354). 221. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 72. See above, n. 67. 222. This and a number of other Rajasthani legends that follow were related to Colonel James Tod, author of Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, ed. with an introduction by William Crooke, 3 vols. (London: H. Milford, 1920; reprint Delhi: Low Cost Publication, 1990). Tod (vol. 1, pp. 258-60) presents the following account as history; Sircar (Guhilas, pp. 12-13) demonstrates that it is a legend. Wink (Al-Hind, vol. 1, p. 294) maintains that the Guhilots who would become the lords of Mewar originated in Gujarat, noting the existence of a forest named Guhila in that province. 223. The Acalgarh fort at Abu was the old stronghold of the Paramaras of Candravatl and Abu: B. N. Dhoundiyal, Rajasthan District Gazateers: Sirohi (Jaipur: Government Central Press, 1967), p. 430. The ruins of CandravatI are situated
about halfway between Amba BhavanI and Abu, at about twelve miles' distance from both sites: Alexander Kinloch Forbes, Ras-mala: Hindu Annals of Western India, with Particular Refrrence to Gujarat (London: Richardson, 1878; reprint New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1973), p. 210. 224. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 259; and Sircar, Guhilas, pp. 12-13. A number of legends connect the aboriginal Bhlls of Rajasthan and Gujarat with the alchemical touchstone. The founder of the Mandalgarh branch of the Calukya race raised the walls of his fortress (Mandalgarh) with the gold he made from a paras patthar ("touchstone") found by a certain Mandoo, a Bhil in his service: Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 545. A similar scenario involving a Bhil blacksmith's apprentice is found in the Kathasaritsagara (Ocean, vol. 3, p. 161 n. 1). 225. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 255, 259, 265-70; and Sircar, Guhilas, pp. 26-27. 226. Here, Bappa's legend parallels that of Guha. Bappa's mother is also from the kingdom of CandravatI. 227. Ekalinga Mdhatmyam 19.35-68 (Premlata Sharma, Ekalingamahatmyam (Ekling Mandir ka Sthalapuran evam Mewad ke Raj-Vams ka Itihds [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976], pp. 85-88). This source does not provide the important account of spitting, which is given only in Tod (Annals and Antiquities, vol. i,pp. 264-65), who also indicates that the initiatory thread with which Harlta Rasi invested Bappa Rawal was called janeo, which is a specifically Nath Siddha term. 228. Gaurishankar H. Ojha, "A Gold Coin of Bappa Rawal," Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, new series no. 6, vol. 23, Numismatic Supplement no. 40 (192627), pp. 14-19. 229. On Harlta Rasi's name, see Sircar, Guhila, p. 25. Rasi was also a common suffix to names of Kalamukhas, an early sectarian evolute of the Pasupatas: A. S. Altekar, "The Rashtrakutas," in G. Yazdani, ed., The Early History of the Deccan, 2 vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1960-61), vol. 2, pp. 705, 707. According to Singh's 19th c. Riport (vol. 2, p. 241), the forerunners of the Kanphata Jogis in Rajasthan were called "Rasi." 230. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 247; and Henri Stern, "Le temple d'FkliiigjI et le royaume de Mewar (Rajasthan) (rapport au divin, royaute et territoire: sources d'une maitrise)," in L'Espace du Temple [Punisartha 10] (1986), p. 30 n. 19. 231. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 174-75. 232. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 66; idem., The Chamars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), p. 76; Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, pp. 407-8; NSC, pp. 191-92; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 179. The Pagalpanthis may be connected, through the persons of Caurariginath-Puran Bhagat and Rasalu, with an n t h c. king named Gaj, whose
Notes to Chapter Five
4»5 Notes to Chapter Five
capital, originally called Gajapuri, had its name changed to Rawalpindi (the "Rawal's body"?): ibid., p. 178. There is also an Indian jdti called Rawal, which probably descends from these western Yogis: Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 49, 53, 54. 233. Gorakh Bdni, Pad 31. Cf. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 66; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, p. 165; and NSC, p. 191-92, 226. There is a Nagnath temple located at Dwarhat, north of Ranikhet, in the Almora district of western Uttar Pradesh: Kanti Prasad Nautiyal, The Archaeology of Kumaon (Varanasi: Chowkhambha, 1969), p. 219. 234. NSC, pp. 191, 224; idem., ed. "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 370; Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, p. 396; and Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 137. See below, chap. 5, nn. 15-16. 235. On Jvalamukhl-Badava, the "seven-tongued flame," in the Mahdbhdrata (3.80.106), see Surinder Mohan Bhardwaj, Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), pp. 44, 47-48. On the badava of the subtle body, see below, chap. 8, sec. 2 c.
suggests that other data are available in the Rasaratndkara (there are three distinct works by this title) and the Rasakaumudi (of which there are also three), as well as the Pdradasamhitd and other 20th c. works on rasasdstra. 3. The names Adinatha, Rudra, Visnu, and Brahma figure in the Kuldrnava Tantra (6.630-64) list of the twelve deities of the divyaugha. 4. Personal communication from N. Sethu Raghunathan, Madurai, January 1985, referring to an appendix to the 14th c. Sarhgadhara Samhita. I am more in clined to attribute these lacunae to the fact that much of what south Indian histori ography treats as historical fact (names of authors and texts, etc.) is in fact legend. So, for example, A. Shanmugavelan (Siddhar Science, p. 16) maintains that the Vedic sage Agastya (Agathiar) learned the Tamil language from the (Buddhist bodhisattva) Avalogithar in north India, before coming south to found the discipline of Sittar alchemy; the same Agastya would have taught medicine to the elder Vagbhatta!
2 36. The Nath Siddhas associate the site with Gorakh and Nagarjuna: Kathleen M. Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess ofNorthwest India in Myth, Ritual, and Symbol (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 44-48. 237. On the role of the Nagnathis on the Hinglaj pilgrimage, see Devadatt Sastri, Agneyatirtha Hinglaj (Bombay: Lokaloka Prakashan, 1978) pp. 4, 6-8. The Rawal "caste" traditionally worships Hinglaj Mata, together with Siva Mahadev, Bhairava, Gorakhnath, and Macchandranath: R. E. Enthoven, The Tribes and Castes of Bombay, 3 vols. (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1923), vol. 3, pp. 306-8. On the Muslim Jogis of the Sind who continue to go to Hiiiglaj on pilgrimage, see Mujtaba and Shah, "Taming," p. 83.
5. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 491; Ray, History, vol. 2, p. xcvi. 6. Ravana is mentioned by name in RM: Paris MSS no. 1222, fol. 27b, lines 9-10. In the Rdmdyana, Candrasena (2) was the name of Ravana's father-in-law (i.e., the father of Ravana's wife Mandodarl), a king of Sirhhala-dvTpa (generally identi fied with Sri Lanka): Singh, Nirgun Sdhity, p. 63. A Sittar alchemical work names Ravana's son Indrajit as an alchemist: see above, chap. 3, n. 34. Another of Ravana's sons, Meghanada, is named as a Nath Siddha in a ca. 1400 A.D. Telugu text, the Navandthacaritra of Gaurana: see above, chap. 4, n. 65.
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238. Yogvdni 2:3 (March 1977), pp. 44-46, cited in Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 64. 239. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 1196. 240. I have summarized Tod's rendering of this account. The name of Tod's "Rita" may be related to the Rltabiknath "Yogi caste" of the Central Provinces who, Briggs reports (Gorakhnath, p. 50), prepare and sell soap-nut (an ingredient used in an alchemical experiment conducted in the 1940s: see below, chap. 11, sec. 1). 241. See below, chap. 10, nn. 19-21. Chapter Five 1. Marcel Detienne, L'invention de la mythologie (Paris: Gallimard, 1981), pp. 131-43. 2. The majority of these solitary citations are culled from a list found in Sharma (Ayurved, pp. 489-94), who inventories alchemical titles together with their alleged authors, without any other descriptive material. He notes that he obtained this list from Siddhinandan Misra, author of Ayurvediya Rasasdstra and other works, and
7. RM, fol. 25a, lines 6-10. Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 185, 493. 8. RM, fols. 24b. 1, 26b.9. Cf. Cordier, "Recentes decouvertes," p. 347. 9. Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," p. 376; idem, "Mantra," p. 252. 10. RC 15.35. Earlier than the Bhaskara who was Nagarjuna's guru (see above, chap. 4, n. 181), another Bhaskara would have authored a commentary on the Susruta Samhita, entitled the Susruta Panjikd, in the 12th century: Sharma, Yogaratnamdld, pp. 9-11; and idem., Ayurved, p. 230, 310-11, 402-5. Somadeva also men tions Dinesvara (15.34), Dandl, and the sage Brahmajyoti, who are mentioned nowhere else. 11. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 489-94. Naravahana is a title of Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth; Naravahanadatta is a hero of Somadeva's Kathdsaritsdgara who be comes the emperor of the Vidyadharas: Ocean, vol. 8, pp. 21-132, and vol. 9, p. 119. 12. These works are the Rasasiddhisdstra (no. 4313 in the Derge Tanjur) and the Rasdyana Sdstroddhrti. See above, chap. 3, n. 121. 13. See above, chap. 4, n. 235. 14. The Carpat Ndtbji ke s'lok is found in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 18. A frag ment (5 folios, 72 verses) of a vernacular work entitled Carpat Rasdyan is held by
4if>
Notes to Chapter Five the MSL (Hindi MSS no. 669). His lost Svargavaidyakapalika is mentioned in the 13th c. RRA (1.1.17). A Carpati Siddhanta is mentioned in Priyanaranjan Ray, Histoiy, p. 128. The Nath Siddhas also attribute two other nonalchemical works—the Carpatamanjari (of which a passage is quoted in Barthwal, Yog-Pravah, p. 71) and the Caturbhavabhivasanakrama—to Carpati: NSC, p. 199. Three Buddhist works attributed to him—none of which are alchemical—are preserved in the Tanjur: Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 137; Bagchi, KJiiN, p. 28; Chattopadhyaya, ed., Taranathas History, pp. 153-54. O " Carpati and Vyadi, see Dowman, Masters, p. 382. 15. On the Buddhist Siddhacarya Carpati's alchemical legend, see above, chap. 3, n. 121. A Telegu myth involving "Sarpati" is found in the Bhojarajiyamu of Ananta: Ro§u, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," pp. 154-55. On the Pran SaiigalJ, see NSC, p. 194. 16. According to Saiva Siddhanta metaphysics, Srlkantha is the seventh of the eight Vidyesvaras, emanates or devolutes of Sadasiva. 17. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 697. Chapter colophons to the Anandakanda read: itisri bhairavokte anandakande. Dvivedi (Nath Sampraday, p. 190) names Manthanabhairava as the author of the lost Rasaratna. A certain Ma[n]thana-sirhha, physician to the king of Malava, is the author of the ca. 14th c. Rasanaksatramalika: Ray, History, vol. 2, p. be. 18. Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 671, 699. Manthana (the "Churner") Bhairava, which is the name of a wild ascetic form of Siva whose cult belongs to the old Vidya Pitha, later replaces the thirteenth and culminating Kali in the krama of Kaula tra dition. The northern transmission also had the same tradition of four "Yuga Nathas" as did Abhinavagupta. It, however, called these the gtirnkrama, the succession of teachers: HTSL, pp. 76-77. 19. For manuscripts of this work, see bibliography. This work is cast as a dia logue, in which the alchemical gnosis is revealed to the goddess Kakacandesvari by a form of Siva who is variously called Isvara, Sadasiva, or Bhairava. Another work, entitled the Kakacandisvara Kalpatantra, ed. Kailashpati Pandey, Kashi Sanskrit Granthamala, 73 (Benares: Chowhkambha Sanskrit Series Office, 1963) is also an alchemical work. This text, substantially shorter than the Kakacandesvarlmata, may be identical to the Maharasayanavidhi, referred to by Shastri in his Catalogue (vol. 1, p. lviii). 20. RU 1.9, 46-58 (which summarizes the chapter contents of the Mahodadhi). The Bhutiprakarana (1.114b) states that the Mahodadhi (but not the Rasarajamahodadhi) is a work in twelve thousand verses, while the Rasopanisat is a work in six thousand verses. This work goes on (1.115-21) to list a number of divinely au-
4'7
Notes to Chapter Five thored (by Vlrabhadra, Sukra, Indra, Vinayaka, etc.) alchemical works mentioned in no other source. 11. Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 39-40; Sharma, Ayurved, p. 490. Two procedures, called the "Kapalika method" and the "sequential Kapali method," are described in the RA (6.84; 14.85; 16.34, 43) a n d ' a t e r w o r k s as techniques for the coloration or liquification of gemstones, mercury, and other minerals. A work entitled the Svargavaidya-kapalika, attributed to Carpati by Nityanatha, author of the RRA, is also a possible source for the name of the Rasa Siddha "Kapalika." See above, n. 13. 22. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 482. Cf. Siddhinandan Misra's foreword to Tripathi's edition of the RA (Rasdrnavam nama Rasatantram), p. 13. 23. Iti isvarasamvadam rasavadam sudurlabhaml'rasdrnavam mahdsdstram ... mahasiddhi yoganandena bhdsitam: ASL MSS 4256 (dated samvat 1732, i.e., A.D. 1675— 76) and erroneously catalogued under the title Rasardjas'ankara, fol. 105a; ASL MSS 4273, fol. 109 (dated samvat 1684 i.e., A.D. 1627-28); and ASL MSS 4274, fol. 149. 24. Bhairavananda Yogin is the purported author of the Dhatukriya or Dbatumanjari, a post-i6th c. work: Satyaprakash, Prdcin Bhdrat, p. 625. However, see below, n. 53. 25. iyam hi potall prokta siiighanena mahibhrta . . . sirighanasya vinirdista bhairavanandayogina lokanathoktapotalya upacara iha smrtah. 26. See above, chap. 4, nn. 180, 191. 27. The mantras and iconography of this alchemical pair are described in RA 2.52-53,62-72. 28. Like a number of alchemical works with -kalpa in their title, the Rasakalpa claims to be a portion of the Rudrayamala Tantra: Ray, History, vol. 2, p. lvii-lviii. See below, nn. 153, 160. 29. BhP 1.11 ib—112b. See below, n. 202. 30. BhP 9.136b: nathagoraksa samprokta. See below, n. 203. 31. Svacchandabhairava is the deity of the Svaccbanda Bhairava or Svacchanda Tantra, the principal Tantra of the mantra pitha. Like Manthanabhairava, Svacchan dabhairava has an alchemical preparation named after him: the RM (fol. 6b-4) and RPS (8.132-33) describe a svacchandabhairava rasa. Elsewhere, one also finds min eral preparations called anandabbairava rasa, sannipatabhairava rasa, and tripurabhairava rasa. 32. Letter from Alexis Sanderson dated 6 July 1992, citing Svacchandatantra 2.88c-94b, and who also notes that the thirty-two-syllable mantra of Rasabhairava (RA 2.68) is a variant of the thirty-two-syllable aghora mantra that is the sakala form of Svacchandabhairava: (SvT 1.41-43). See below, chap. 6, nn. 59, 62. 33. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 493.
4
iK
419
Notes to Chapter Five 34. This work is quoted extensively by Ksemaraja (fl. A.D. 1000-50) in his com mentary on chapter nineteen of the Netra Tantra.: Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 42. A palm-leaf manuscript of this work held in the NNA (MSS no. 3-392 [Saivatantra 67]) is dated Nepal samvat 304 (= A.D. 1184). See Bagchi, KJn~N(p. 2), and Gonda, History (p. 216), on Srikantha-guru as the great preceptor of the Pasupatas. 35. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 492. Dvivedi (Nath Sampraday, p. 190) names Manthanabhairava as the author of this work. See below, nn. 170-73. 36. A single alchemical manuscript (no. 1.14.ii.19) entitled Ghoda Colt is held in the private collection of the Sri Ramacarana Praya Vidyaplth in Jaipur; three onefolio manuscripts of the Ghoddcoli Vdkya (MSL MSS nos. 1481, 1482 [a], and 1483 [b]) are held in the Maharaja Man Singh Library in Jodhpur. Ghoda Coll is listed as a Rasa Siddha in the AK and as a Mahasiddha in the HYP. 37. Barthwal, YogPravdh, pp. 68-69; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 167. 38. Kardaswamy, History, p. 354. See above, chap. 3, n. 54. 39. See below, n. 235. 40. Pandey, Gorakhndth, p. 118. Another work on tantric sorcery, the Kamaratna, is alternatively attributed to Nityanatha Siddha, "son of Parvatl," or to Srinatha, Siddhanatha (a name sometimes identified with Matsyendranath), or Naga Bhatta: HTSL, p. 122. 41. There is confusion over this attribution. The Goraksa Siddhdnta Samgraha knows of two texts entitled SSP, of which one was authored by Goraksanatha and the other by Nityanatha. Nowotny (Goraksas'ataka, pp. 23-24) indicates that FitzEdward Hall found a copy of the SSP attributed to Nityanatha, but notes that Rajendralal Mitra (The Yogic Aphorisms of Patanjali [Calcutta: n.p., 1883, appendix, "A Descriptive List of Works Extant on the Yoga System of Philosophy," S.S. 1181) disagrees. Kaviraj (Bhdratiy, vol. 2, p. 275 n. 1) agrees with Hall; while Briggs (Gora khnath, p. 255), citing Mitra, calls the author Nityananda Siddha. This last name corresponds to that of one of the Siddhas enumerated in chapter 49 of the Sankaravijaya of Anandagiri, which constitutes a Siddha charter of sorts. On this, see David Gordon White, "The Nath Siddhas," forthcoming in Constantina Rhodes-Bailly, Douglas Renfrew Brooks, William K. Mahony, and Paul Muller-Ortega, eds., Siddha Yoga: Continuity and Freedom in a Contemporary Spiritual Tradition, vol. 2 (nn. 29-32). 42. Acarya Yasodhara krta Rasaprakdsasudhdkara, with a Hindi translation by Siddhinandan Misra, Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, no. 54 (Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1984). 43. Edited, together with a 12th c. work, the Lohasarvasvam of Suresvara, by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya (Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, 1925).
Notes to Chapter Five 44. Discussion in Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 39. 45. The latter of these two works is ASL MSS no. 4267. On these texts and the dating of their author to the reign of Bukka I of Vijayanagara, see Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), pp. 799-800, 943. 46. ASL MSS no. 4260. For a historical discussion, see Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 42. 47. ASL MSS no. 4222. For a historical discussion, see Sharma, Ayurved, p. 409. 48. Ed. Jivaram Kalidas (Bombay: Venkatesvara Steam Press, 1967). 49. Ed. Manirama Sastri (Bikaner: Maniramasarma, 1934). 50. Ed. with notes by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya and Hindi commentary by Indradeo Tripathi, Chaukhamba Ayurveda Granthamala, 10 (Benares: Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 1984). For a discussion, see Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 336, 484. 51. ASL MSS no. 4348. 52. ASL MSS no. 4258. 53. A portion of the Dhdtukriyd is reproduced in Priyanaranjan Ray, History, pp. 414-42: it appears to be the same text as the Dhdtukalpa, attributed to Nagarjuna in manuscript colophons, as are the Pdradakalpa and Gandhakakalpa: see bibliogra phy and Ray, History, vol. 2, pp. lvii-lviii. 54. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 485. 55. ASL MSS no. 4280. On the dating of this text, see Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 805. 56. Tantric sorcery is the subject of three classes of tantras, according to the Netra Tantra's classificatory scheme of the srotas: these are the Varna Tantras (on the gaining of siddhis), Garuda Tantras (on poisons), and Bhuta Tantras (on posses sion and exorcism): HTSL, pp. 16-17. A11 such works are placed within the fourth, lower srota of an alternative classificatory schema, found in the Brahmaydmala Tan tra: Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 39, 42. 57. NNA MSS nos. 3-392 (dated A.D. 1184) and 5-4947 (reel nos. B25/32 and A149/2); Kaiser Library (Kathmandu) MSS no. 297 (reel no. C30/16). 58. ASL MSS no. 4184. 59- ASL MSS no. 3967. 60. The APT has been edited and constitutes the last of the six works antholo gized in the Indrajdlavidyasamgraha, ed. Bhattacarya, pp. 264-390. The Yogaratnamdld, a much shorter work, has been edited with an excellent historical intro duction by Priyavrata Sharma. Sharma notes parallel verses on p. 13 of his introduction. 61. The Dattdtreya Tantra has been published as an independent work by Rajesh Dikshit (Delhi: Dehati Pustak Bhandar, n.d.). It is also included in Bhattacarya's
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edition of the Indrajalavidyasamgraha (pp. 132-79). Compare 1.5a of this work (uddis'e merutantre ca kalacandesvare tatha) with RRA 5.1.7 and KPT i.9ab (uddis'e vatule tantre ucchiste siddhisavare kirikinl merutantre ca kalacandesvare mate). 62. The Matrkabheda Tantra has been edited by Chintamani Bhattacharya, Cal cutta Sanskrit Series, 7 (Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1933, 1958); and translated by Mi chael Magee [Loknath Maharaj] (Delhi: Indological Book House, 1989). 63. See above, chap. 4, n. 191. 64. Peter Peterson, ed., The PaddhatiofSanigadhara, A Sanskrit Anthology (Bom bay: Central Book Depot, 1888), pp. 659-703. For a historical discussion, see Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 197-98; and K. R. Srikanta Murthy's introduction to his edi tion and English translation of the Sarngadhara Samhita, which states (p. v) that the alchemical portions of the Paddhati were taken from a lost text entitled Yogarasayana. 65. Kaviraj, Bhdratty, vol. 2, p. 292, note 1. On the role of the Yogasikhopanisadm later 108 Upanisad traditions, see Christian Bouy, Les Natha-Yogin et les Upanisads, Publications de l'lnstitut de Civilisation Indienne, no. 62 (Paris: De Boccard, 1994), pp. 112-13. 66. Manasollasa 1.2.10—51. 67. Pitambaradatta Barthwal, Gorakh Bam (Allahabad: Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, 1942), who offers tentative Hindi translations. Another edition of this collection, which includes a long and sometimes useful Hindi commentary, was published by the Gorakhnath Mandir in Gorakhpur in 1979: Ramlal Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh Bant" Visesank (Yog Vani, special issue no. 1 for 1979) (Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1979). 68. Dvivedi, Nath Siddhoni, introduction, pp. 1-2, on the contents of Gorakh Bdni (cf. Barthwal's introduction to Gorakh Bant, pp. 11-20), and pp. 2-4, 16, 21, on the contents and dating of the works of the other Nath Siddhas. Cf. Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali (Doha), p. v; Ronald Stuart McGregor, Hindi Literature from Its Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984), pp. 2122, 132; and Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 373. 69. Dvivedi, Nath Siddhoni, p. 56 ("Bharthari jl Id sabadl," v. 6). 70. Reproduced in Mallik, SSP, pp. 82-87. See above, chap. 3, nn. 3, 121. 71. One of the two is edited in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 39. 72. Chap. 13 of the Dattdtreya Tantra is entitled "Rasayanam" and contains four magical recipes that make use of mercury and sulfur, as well as other mineral, herbal, and animal (herpal) ingredients. Other chapters contain descriptions of "magical" uses of minerals, as for example chap. 8, which explains how to use kajjali on one's eyes to bring a woman under one's power (strivasikarana is, moreover, the title of this chapter). See Sharma, Ayurved, p. 492. The manuscript of a work en-
titled the Datta Patala was in the possession of an old Delhi vaidya named Sriram Sharma Shastri. When I met him, in January of 1985, he was attempting to produce alchemical gold by following its instructions. 73. The Rasadarpana is cited by the 16th c. Todarananda: Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 486,491,493. 74. The colophon to the NNA MSS no. 1-1473 of the KM states that it was adydvatare; the same is said of a list of sixty-four yoginis contained in the Kubjikapfija-paddhati (fol. 52): Shastri, Catalogue, vol. 1, p. 58; and vol. 2, p. 80. Adinatha is the author of the Mahakala Samhita: Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 112. The Tara Khanda of the Saktisaiigama Tantra is cast as a dialogue between the goddess Sakti and (Siva-)Adinatha: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 4 n. 1. 75. Adinatha is invoked as a divinity in the opening (1.1) of the SSP of Gorakh nath, and is later (5.5-12) quoted at some length in the same work. 76. Five of these are edited together by Bagchi, in his Kaulajnananirnaya. They are: Kaulajnananirnaya; two distinct works entitled Kulavira Tantra (A and B); Kulananda Tantra; and Jiianakarikd. A short vernacular work, entitled Matsyendrandthji ka pad, has been edited in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhmn, pp. 64-65; and in Mallik, SSP, p. 76. The Yoga Visaya, a Sanskrit work on hathayoga attributed to Matsyendra, is edited ibid., pp. 45-47- A relatively early work, also attributed to Matsyendra, is the Candravalocana: it is quoted in the HYP (4.16, 54): Bouy, Natha-Yogin, p. 82 n. 345. A very late hathayogic source, entitled the Matsyendra Samhita, is found in manuscript form in the MSL and the NNA. Cf. Pandeya, introduction to Goraksa Samhita, vol. 1, p. gha. 77. RA 1.4b: kulakaulamahakaulasiddhakauladi sasanam (here I emend naianam of Ray's and Tripathi's editions to sasanam, which is the reading found in the three ASL manuscripts of the work, and which makes more sense). RA 18.228a: tasminekarnave ghore nastasthavarajarigame. Cf. Matsyendra's Kuldnanda Tantra (in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 107, whose opening verse is repeated nearly verbatim by the KCM [1.1]). 78. KJnN 16.47-49. Cf. Bagchi's interpretation, on p. 35. 79. Mrgendragama, Caryapada 1.36D-37, 4ob~4ia (Helene Brunner-Lachaux, Mrgendragama, Section des Rites et Section du Compoitement avec la Vrtti de Bhattandrdyanakantha, Publications de l'lnstitut Francaise d'Indologie, no. 69 [Pondicherry, Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1985], pp. 364, 366). In a list of auspicious dream visions, the same source (Kriyapada 8.148-15b) names "seeing white mica . . . the Siddhas . . . [and] coming upon the siddba-fluid!' This last element is glossed by the commentator as rasdyana. See above, chap. 3, n. 133. 80. Tarapada Mukherji, ed., Gopicandra Ndtaka (Calcutta: University of Cal cutta, 1970), p. xliv; Bagchi, KJnN, p. 1. A ca. 14th c. palm-leaf manuscript in the
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Notes to Chapter Five Nepal National Archives, entitled Srikdmdkhydguhyasiddhi purports, in its colo phons, to be have been "brought down by Sri Matsyendra-pada": ibid., p. 60. This work is cited in the late-i3th c. Kubjikanitydhnikatilaka: Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 163-64 (n. 23 to part 2). However, as Tucci notes ("Animadversiones," p. 134), Matsyendra may have been an initiatory name given to a number of persons. 81. See chapter colophons to the KJnN and KM, discussed below, chap. 8, sec. 2b. Like Srisailam, which has been identified with at least three peaks, Candragiri is also a ubiquitous mountain. An inscription from Karnataka locates a Candrapuri in the western ocean (Saletore, "Kanaphata Jogis," pp. 20-21). Candragiri is also the name of a peak situated at the western end of the Kathmandu Valley. Candradvipa, Candragiri, Candrapuri, and the "western country" {pascima dis'i: Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 9 = v. 105) are also mystic locations within the subtle body. 82. Cited in NSC, pp. 49, 217; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy; and Pandey, Goraksa Samhita, vol. 1, p. cha (who also notes that the Goraksasahasranamastotra gives the southern toponym of Vadava as Gorakh's birthplace). On this, see also Bagchi, KJnN, p. 64. 83. Such early Buddhist works as the Guhyasamdja Tantra (with the Sekoddesa and other commentaries) know of six-limbed (sadanga) hatha yoga, but only speak of the four specifically Buddhist cakras. In Buddhist systems, the Upanisadic tarka ("analytical reasoning") is replaced with anusmrti, "recollection," and in Hindu ha tha yoga with the dsanas ("postures"). One commentary on chapter 18 of the Guhya samdja Tantra, entitled "Sadariga Yoga," is the work of Nagarjuna. It is extant in Tibetan: Wayman, Yoga, pp. 163-73. The Mahasiddha authors of the p r e - m h c. Carydpadas were also well acquainted with a number of hathayogic techniques, but held to the older four-cakra system. See also Majjhimanikdya 12 and 36, as evidence that the Buddha himself was a teacher ofhatha yoga: Nowotny, Goraksas'ataka, p. 14. A number of hathayogic techniques are vaguely described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 2.46-50: Vyasa, in his 5th c. commentary to the Yoga Sutras, lists a number of pos tures but gives no account of the cakras. The practice of diaphragmatic retention is alluded to, by the term of stambha-vrtti, in YS 2.50. The ca. 1st c. A.D. Mrcchakatikd mentions one yogic posture (1.1: palankasand); none are mentioned in the Mahabbarata (E. W Hopkins, "Yoga Techniques in the Epics," JAOS 22 [1901], pp. 34548, 369, 373). The MBh (5.42.33) compares the yogin who cultivates vJrya with "a dog that eats its own vomit." 84. nityam nyastasadarigacakranihitam hrtpadmamadhyoditam/ . . . nadlnamudayakramena jagatah pancamrtakarsanadapraptotpatana: Mdlati-Mddhava 5.2. On the importance of this passage for the history of hatha yoga, see Dvivedi, Nath Sam praddy, pp. 82, 84; and Sanderson ("Purity and Power," p. 213 nn. 89, 108), who
42!
Notes to Chapter Five notes that this method of extraction is described in minute detail in chapter 3 of th e Jayadratkaydmala (NNA MSS no. 5-1975, Saiva tantra 429), fol. 184, v. 5-8. It is unlikely, however, that this source is as old as Bhavabhuti. The process is also described in Matsyendranath's KJnN 11.18. The RA (18.217-19) appears to de scribe a similar process, but on an external, alchemical register. See above, chap. 3, n. 133. 85. Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 687-88. 86. This list is also found, with variations, in KJnN 5.25b. In 3.6-10, Matsy endra describes a set of nine cakras. These correspond precisely to standard enu merations in later sources. 87. KJiiN 3.2-3 is adapted, nearly verbatim, by the HYP (4.14): Bagchi, KJnN, p. vii. On matsyodara, see below, chap. 8, sec. 2a. 88. The earliest extant manuscripts of both works are held in the Nepal Na tional Archives. The KM (NNA MSS no. 1-285) i s dated A.D. 1160; the KJnN (NNA MSS no. 2-362 [H]) is dated to the mid-i ith c. A.D. (Bagchi, KJnN, p. 5). 89. Abhinavagupta (apparently paraphrasing KJnN 2 2.8-9) speaks of his rever ence for Macchandanath in TA 1.7: "May Macchandanatha be propitious to me, he who tore apart the glowing net made of knots and holes, a batch of bits and pieces unfolding and spreading everywhere" (tr. in Silburn, Kundalim, p. 121). Cf. TA 29.32, and Jayaratha's commentary to TA 1.18; Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 681; and Goudriaan, HTSL, p. 18. 90. He mentions the KM in his Paratrirhs'ikavivarana, p. 184 (cited in Dyczkow ski, Canon, p. 172, n. 79). See also ibid., pp. 48-49, 65, 84, and Schoterman, Satsdhasrasamhitd, p. 6. 91. The TA 7.40 cites a work entitled Yoginikaula, on the subject of the distribu tion of the s'aktitattva into padas, mantras, aksaras, and cakras. 92. Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 65, n. 65. The KM also mentions the Siddha Kaula (ibid., p. 171, n. 70) and the Siddha-marga (London, Wellcome MSS g50i, fol. 35-7-8). 93. Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 681; Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 163 (n. 23 to p. 62). The other three are Khaga (Bird), Tortoise (Kurma), and Mesa (Ram). Abhinava gupta never employs the term amndya in his writings; he seems however to assume it: ibid., p. 66. 94. Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 81. 95. The Western Transmission subscribed to this same mythic doctrine. On this, the sons of Macchanda (or Mlnanatha), and the ovalli system, see Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 62, 70, 163-64, 166, and 191 (nn. 23, 32, and 233 to part 2); and San derson, "Saivism," p. 681.
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96. For historical discussions, see Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 679; idem., "Trika Saivism," p. 15; Dyczkowski, Cation, pp. 65, 80; and HTSL, p. 50. See above, chap.
112. Important works include Harvey Alper, ed., Mantra (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989) (much of his volume is devoted to the methodological principle of treating tantric mantra as a "language game"); Brooks, Secret (mainly on the Srlvidya tradi tion); Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart; and Padoux, Vac. On the parallel Vedic intellectuali/.ation of concrete sacrifice, see Frits Staal, Rules Without Meaning (New York: Peter Lang, 1989), and Jan Heesterman, The Broken World of Sacrifice (Chi cago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
3,n.
132.
97. Sanderson, "Purity and Power," p. 214 n. n o , citing TA 13.301, 320-2ib; and Mahdmndyaprakasa 1.30. 98. Sanderson, "Trika Saivism," in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, p. 15. In spite of these reforms, and the broadening of the Trika base in ioth-i ith c. Kashmir, it was the dualist orthodox Saiva Siddhanta doctrines and the cult of Svacchandabhairava that remained predominant in the valley: idem., "Kashmir Saivism," vol. 13, p. 16. 99. On the collection and use of combined sexual emissions (called kundagolaka, etc.) in prereform ritual and worship, see KJriN n . 1 8 , 32; 18.7-8; HTSL, p. 44; Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 80; and Schoterman, Yonitantra, pp. 28-29, 3 2 100. See KJriN 18.6-23 on ritualized sex; 8.31-32 for an explicit discussion of the use of eight types of vidyd [goddesses]; 8.30-45 on means to gaining access to the sixty-four yoginis; and 11.1-43 o n t n e offering and consumption of prohibited foods and sexual fluids. See also 14.56 and 17.42. Cf. Sanderson, "Trika Saivism," Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, p. 15. 101. Dyczkowski, Cation, pp. 60, 62, 82. 102. Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 663, 679-80; idem, "Purity and Power," pp. 191-02; idem, "Trika Saivism," p. 15. On historical clues for the geographical and temporal parameters of these changes, see also Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 34-35, 48, 55, 86, 92, 189 n. 193. On the Vidyapltha as the most important subdivision within the tantric classificatory system of the four pithas, ibid., pp. 49-52. 103. TA i5.i6o-7ob with Jayaratha's commentary, cited in Sanderson, "Mandala," p. 176, n. 29. 104. TA 29.127-32. This practice is prescribed for those whose goal is enjoy ment (bubhuksus) as a means to attaining siddbi; and for those who have yet to attain self-realization (apraptavibodhd). See below, chap. 10, sec. 2. 105. Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 80. 106. Jayaratha's commentary to TA 29.129a. I am grateful to Alexis Sanderson for bringing this reference to my attention. 107. TA 3.261-64 and 5.151. Cf. idem., Paratrisikd-laghuvrtti 11-16, with com mentary, in Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, pp. 181, 189, and 195 (English transla tions) and 283, 286, and 288 (original Sanskrit). 108. TA 5.58a, translated by Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, p. 123. 109. On this, see Silburn, Kundalini, p. 174; and Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 82. 1 io. See below, chap. 7, n. 67. i n . See above, chap. 3, n. 129.
113. Gopinath Kaviraj, Tdntrik Sddhand aur Siddhant (Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasa Parisad, 1979), p. 392. Bindu-sadhana refers to practices involving "drops" (bindu) of sexual fluids. 114. This is an abridgement of the Srimatottara Tantra, which is also closely related to the Manthanabhairava Tantra, a work that also refers to itself as Kadi text: see HTSL, p. 55, and below, nn. 202, 209. 115. Elsewhere, Jalandhara has no alchemical works to his name, either in San skrit or vernacular languages. His anthologized poems are on the subject of hatha yoga. Like a number of other Nath Siddhas, Jalandhara appears to have been too busy living his yoga to have written about it. The rich body of legend surrounding him contains a wide array of yogic and alchemical motifs. Jalandhara has seven Buddhist works attributed to him in the Tanjur: Chattopadhyaya, Tdrandtha's His tory, p. 417. He is also the author of a Sanskrit work, definitely from within the Nath Siddha fold, the Siddhanta Vakya: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, pp. 6-7. His ver nacular poem, "Jalandhrl Pav jl kl sabadl," is edited in idem., Nath Siddhom, pp. 30-31, and Mallik, SSP, pp. 90-91. 116. This poem is translated and discussed below, chap. 9, sec. 8. Gorakh dispar ages alchemy and other tantric practices that afford siddhis inferior to those pro cured through yogic practice in Yogabija 174. 117. Rao and Reddy, "A Note on Goraksanatha and His Work Yogadipikd," p. 37. See above, chap. 4, n. 172. 118. The Gorakh Upanisad is edited in Mallik, SSP, pp. 72-75. 119. This work is often referred to simply as the Hatha Yoga. The critical edition was established by Nowotny (Das Goraksas'ataka) in 1976. 120. For a longer listing of these works, see Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, pp. 98-99; Briggs, Gorakhndth, pp. 252-53; Pandey, Gorakhndth, pp. 82-83; Nowotny, Gora ksas'ataka, pp. 23-24; and Gopinath Kaviraj's introduction to his edition of the Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha (Benares: Vidya Vilas Press, 1925), pp. ta-na. 121. Sdriigadhara Paddhati 4372: dvidha hathah syadekastu goraksadisusadhitah/ anyo mrkandaputradyaih sadhitonisamudyataih. Dattatreya s exposition of yoga is found in Mdrkandeya Parana 39.1-65; 40.1-41; and 41.1-26. Cf. Mallik, SSP, p. 75.
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Notes to Chapter Five
in. Pandey, Gorakbndth, pp. 89-90. Elsewhere, a manuscript (MSL MSS no. 1557) of the Dattagoraksasamvdda claims to be a portion of the Tantra Mahdrnava. 123. The sole extant recension of the hathayogic Goraksa Sambita appears to be a ca. 16th c. manuscript, written in Bengali characters, held in the Nepal National Archives, which was translated into Bengali by Prasannakumara Kaviratna in 1897. For a discussion of the relationships between the these works, see Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," pp. 134-36; Bagchi, KJnN, p. 64; and Pandey, introduction to Goraksa Sambita, vol. 1, p. ta. Chapter 1 of the Goraksa Sambita parallels chapters 1-3 of the SSP; chapter 3 parallels SSP 4; and chapter 5 parallels chapter 6 of the SSP, which describes the avadhuta. Cf. Goraksa Paddhati 1.4. 124. Meulenbeld (History, draft of 10 May 1994, p. 1011 n. 14010) attempts to make sense of this statement by dividing the work as follows: (1) Kddi-prakarana (the Sakta work); (2) Bhutiprakarana (the alchemical work); (3) Yoga-khanda; (4) Nddijndnadipikd; and (5) the Avadbutagita. 125. On alchemy, see Bhattacharya, Sadhanamala, vol. 2, p. xxi. On hatha yoga, see HT, p. 165. This source (p. 9) nevertheless includes alchemy and hatha yoga in its list of the eighteen "constituents of tantra." The alchemical literature is discussed in the chapter entitled "Tantras of Magic" in the survey of tantric literature produced by these same scholars: HTSL, pp. 117-26. 126. Brooks, Secret, pp. 52-53. 127. RRS 13.61; 16.7, 31. 128. The Rasdrnava calls itself a "great Tantra" in 1.57. The full title of the Rasahrdaya is Rasahrdaya Tantra; the BhP calls itself the Bhuti Tantra (2.101), etc. 129. The alchemical BhP, for example, calls itself the Hddibheda of the Goraksa Sambita. 130. Ayantra is an apparatus which controls or subdues (jam) the volatile ele ments combined in it (another use of yantra, as a synonym for mandala, diagram, has the same meanings, since by using it as a meditational support, the yogin is able to concentrate and bring his mind under control). 131. HT, pp. 78-89. 132. Brooks, Secret, p. 134; Gupta,"Pancaratra," in Alper, Mantra, p. 235. 133. Sanderson, "Purity and Power," p. 192. 134. This description therefore excludes the important orthodox Saiva Siddhanta, which was dualist, nonvibratory, nonbipolar, etc. 135. In opposition to Vedanta, which sees the phenomenal world as mdyd, illu sion that veils ultimate reality: Navjivan Rastogi, The Krama Tantrism of Kashmir (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), vol. 1, p. 39, citing the Maharthamanjari of Mahesvarananda, p. 14.
136. On the anthropic principle, see John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). Cf. S. K. Ramachandra Rao, Sri-Cakra (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1989), p. 9: "The world is in reality a deliberate mechanism for the objectification of conscious ness (prameya) while the individual is an equally deliberate mechanism for the subjectification of consciousness (pramata)!' 137. Summarized in Padoux, Vac, pp. 51, 79-83. 138. In Trika Kaulism, an optical model is used to express the relationship be tween Siva and Sakti: Siva is pure illuminating consciousness, prakasa; and the god dess reflective consciousness, vimarsa: Abhinavagupta, Paratrimsikd-vivarana, p. 90, quoted in Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, p. 98. See also ibid., pp. 95-99. 139. Brooks, Secret, pp. 66, 88-89. 140. Brooks, Secret, p. 63; Rao, Sri-Cakra, pp. 7-12. 141. Brooks, Secret, pp. 49, 124; Rastogi, Krama, p. 38. 142. Another instance of the fundamental cleavage between these two ap proaches is to be found in the former's system of nine "alchemical" (rasa-sampradaya or kapdlika) samskdras, as opposed to the latter's eighteen "Ayurvedic" (bhagvan sankara or saumya) samskdras: Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 214-15. 143. This work has been edited twice in this century, by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya (Lahore: Motilal Banarsidass, 1927), and by Daultarama Rasasastri, with an intro duction, commentary, and Hindi translation (Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1989). 144. RMfol. 29b.io-3oa.i; 3ob.i. See below, n. 265. 145. Vagbhatta II, author of the Rasaratnasamucchaya (1.33), copies this verse verbatim, as he does much of Govinda's first chapter. 146. RHT 1.15-32. He mentions jivanmukti in 1.33. 147. The eighteen samskdras are discussed in detail in chap. 9, sec. 2. 148. The four elixir pills are: amarasundari, mrtasanjivant, vajrini, and khecari. These and the results they produce are outlined in 19.61-76. 149. RHT 19.78-80 of Misra's edition. These concluding verses are not found in the NNA (MSS no. 3-118/ reel no. B165/1) manuscript of this work. On the basis of the word bhiksu in 19.80, Ray (History [1956], p. 149) concluded this was a Buddhist work. 150. Sharma, Ayurved, p. 480; Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 34-35; and Romila Thapar, "The Image of the Barbarian in Early India" Comparative Studies in Society and History 13:3 (July 1971), p. 424. 151. On the genealogies and history of the Chedi or Kalachuri kings, see Alex ander Cunningham, A Report ofa Tour in the Central Provinces in 1873-74 and t^74~
4^y
4*8
Notes to Chapter Five
Notes to Chapter Five 75, Archaeological Survey of India, vol. 9 (reprint ed. Benares: Indological Book House, 1966), pp. 77-113; R. D. Banerji, The Haihayas ofTripuri and Their Monu ments, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, no. 23 (Calcutta: Govern ment of India Central Publication Branch, 1931), pp. 1-116; and Babb, Divine Hierarchy, pp. 3-6. Wink (Al-Hind, vol. I, p. 287) surmises that they were driven out of Malava in the 7th-8th centuries by the Pratiharas. 152. Wink, Al-Hind, vol. 1, pp. 258-59. Madana could not have been an important Kalachuri prince, however, since his name occurs nowhere in its royal inscriptions. 153. A later work, entitled the Rasarnavakalpa (RAK) claims to be a portion of the older Rudrayamala Tantra: HT, p. 11. This work has been edited and translated into English by Mira Roy and B. V. Subbarayappa as Rasarnavakalpa {Manifold Pow ers of the Ocean ofRasa), (New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1976). RAK 78-207 is borrowed from RA 12.8-182; other portions of this text bear similarities to the KCKT; it has one verse in common with the RM: Meulenbeld, Histoty (draft of 10 May 1994), P- ^73> n o t e 1245°; a n c ' P- ^75154. In its two printed editions, RA 3.23a reads "damarakhya mahamantra dhamanlsu niyojayet." Certain manuscript versions (ASL MSS no. 4256, fol.12a.10) read damarakhyam mahatantram. . . . There exists a work on tantric sorcery, enti tled the Uddamara Mahatantra, which I have not been able to date. A work entitled Ddmara Tantra has been edited and translated by Ram Kumar Rai (Benares: Prachya Prakashan, 1988). 155. On the dating of the Vimalaprabha, see above, chap. 3, n. 122. 156. Cf. the KCM, which singles out eight (of which six figure in the RA enu meration) of the eighteen samskaras as astakarma, the "eight Works." See above, n. 142, and below, n. 185. 157. Partial lists of the samskaras are found in RA 10.10 and 11.210-12. Ac cording to Siddhinandan Misra (Ayurvediya, p. 214), a number of other alchemical works follow the kdpalika method for the purification of mercury. Other kapalika methods are mentioned in RA 6.43, 84; 14.85; 16.34; etc. See below, chap. 6, n. 16; and above, n. 142. 158. Quite often, the sole difference between passages found in the two works is in word order. Compare RHT 2.3 and RA 10.41; RHT 12.4 and RA 8.36; RHT 17.3—5 a n d RA 17.78; and RHT 19.2, 9, 18a, 20 and RA 18.3, 8, 13a, 153b. 159. For a discussion, see Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 19-20. 160. So too does the 12th c. RAK, which goes so far as to co-opt the RA's title even as it claims to be a portion of the Rudrayamala Tantra. 161. RA 1.19: murcchito harate vyadhim mrto jlvayati svayam/ baddhah khecar-
atam kuryat raso vayusca bhairavi. Cf. RM 1.8: baddhah khecaratam padamnayed dharate vyadhisamuho murchitah/ jaritabhavo janmabhavo vinasanah kramito rafijitah bhuktimuktidah. RA 1.19 is copied verbatim by HYP 4.27. See below,chap. 9, nn. 54-55. 162. RA: 14.40. "The Siddha [who uses] 'diamond-bound' mercury is quite in vincible to the gods and demons. He [becomes] the leader of the twenty-four Siddhas (catmvimsatisiddhanam nayaka), a bestower of all the siddhis" The RM's list of twenty-seven Rasa Siddhas, which occurs in its commentary {tippana), may be bor rowed from the RRS: see below, n. 265. 163. See above, chap. 3, n. 133 and n. 84 to this chapter. 164. A terse exposition of this theory and attendant practice is found in the Jndnakarika (2.20-4) attributed to Matsyendranath (in Bagchi, KJnN), p. 116. See also the metaphysics of Gorakhnath, as presented in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 102-13.
165. See below, chap. 8, sec. 4. 166. RA 18.221-27. 167. RM fol. 27b-9-io: pancamrto mahayogah hyukto manthanabhairave va raksasaravane va punastatraiva bhasitam. 168. RM fol. 283.3-8. 169. Rosu, Lietard et Cordier, introduction, p. c. 170. RM fol.7a. 1-3 prescribes this rasa for ailments involving wind and bile. It is composed of mica, orpiment, copper, iron, saurabharaja, and mercury, as well as a number of botanicals. Manthanabhairavarasa is also described in the RPS (8.17374) and the RRS (14.90-92), which uses more or less the same ingredients and prescribes it for the treatment of coughs. See above, n. 31. 171. Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 97-98. Eagerly awaited is Mark Dyczkowski's criti cal edition and translation of this monumental work, now under preparation. The RC (6.1) cites the Manthanahhairava Mahagama as the source for its discussion of the divine herbs (divyausadhi). See also above, n. 114. 172. Kubjika is mentioned in RA 3.8, 31, referring to a mudrd and a mantra. 173. This entire passage opens, in the RM (fol. 26b.10), with the statement: "I will now tell. . . what was done by Martandeya [or Mdrkatideya]!' The former would refer either to a divine father of Yama (Martanda); the Vaisnava sage to whom was revealed an eponymous Purana; or to the Raja Martanda of King Bhoja (the narrativization of this operation casts Bhoja as the alchemist's royal assistant in both Alberuni's and the Telugu author Ananta's versions: see above, chap. 3, n. 3). Evidence from the i2th-i3th c. RC militates against an identification of Manthanahhairava with the Bhairava who revealed or authored the RA. This author evokes both a
43° Notes to Chapter Five Bhairavacarya (whom he seems to identify as the author of the RA), and Manthanabhairava: RC 1.28, 6.1, 12.25, 16.55, i<5-7*174. RA 11.198-205, 209, 214, 218; 12.104-9, 348-51; 15.131; 14.3-20; 18.165-69, 174-77, 194, 201-3, a n ^ 211~21■ The RM copies or paraphrases the RA in each of the four chapters (with tippana) contained in the two manuscripts I have consulted (Paris MSS no. 1222 and GAU MSS no. 862/34). The RA repeats itself in the following places: 18.165-70 = 18.201-3, 2 °6-7, 2 I 8 . 175. The KCKT (41.6) cites Nagarjuna and a work entitled Siddhayoga (KCKT 8.7-15, referring either to Nagarjuna's Ascaryayogamald—Yogaratnamald, or to Vrnda's Siddhiyoga). It is likely a 13th c. work, from western India. 176. NNA MSS no. 5-3969 (reel no. A211/19). A partial edition (of selected portions of the first six chapters) of the KCM is found in Priyanaranjan Ray, History, pp. 345-5°177. Passages that are nearly identical are RA 6.34-38 and KCM 6.21-25, 29-30 (numbering here is from Ray's partial edition, p. 350); RA 7.10 and KCM fol. i9b-4-5; RA 10.10-12 and KCM fol. 17b.2-3; &4 12.280, 293D-294 and KCM fol. 13b.3-5; RA 12.311, 313-14 and KCM fol. 148.3-4 and 14b.2-3; and RA 18.94-95 and KCM fol. 53.7-8. No manuscript of the KCM numbers its chapters or verses. 178. Sanderson, "Saivism," pp. 682-85. An e c n o of these cults is found in the KJnN 23.2-9. 179. On the worship of Batukanatha, see KCM fol. 6a.5-6. The RA (2.119-21) prescribes the worship of Batukesvara, in the context of a rite intended to pacify demons who might otherwise destroy one's Work. Mercury is referred to as rasabhairava in fol. 7b.11 the RA calls for the worship of Rasa (the "Mercurial") Bhairava. Sarvajna is likely a distortion of Sarvaja ("Arrow-Born"), a name of Rudra-Siva used extensively in some manuscript versions of the BhP. 180. The Kulananda Tantra passage is found in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 107; on the Lalitdvistara (v. 44 = KCM 1.1) see Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, vol. 1, p. 302.
181. KCM 1.28, 29, 33 (numbering here is from Ray's partial edition, p. 348). Cf. BhP I.I—12. The term dravya is employed in the RA to signify the sexual fluids (2.121b) offered in tantric worship (siddhadravya), as well as all the "secret" fluids (1240-1253), including mercury, used in alchemy. Dravya-guna is the term em ployed in modern Ayurveda for pharmacology. 182. The amarasundari is described in RA 18.94-95, in KCM fol. 5a.7-5b.6, in RM fol. i6a-5, and in RHT 19.65-66. The RA (18.174-75) also mentions a pill called vajrdngasundari, the "Diamond-Limbed Beauty." The KCM follows its dis cussion of these aphrodisiacs (fol. 3a.cj-6a.i) with an account of the khecarlgutika (fol. 6a.2-6b.i), which mainly concerns secretly "sporting" in the sky with sakinis,
43i
Notes to Chapter Five bhiltas, vetdlas, brahmardksas, women of divine beauty, and the goddess Bhairavl. In the RA, the emphasis is on flight and immortality. 183. KCM fol 6b.3-12b.7184. KCM fol 12^7-173.5. 185. KCM fo\. i7a.8-i7b.3. See above, n. 156. 186. The KCM list of eight metals is quite idiosyncratic: tin, iron, gold (which it calls niska), lead, white copper (kamsya), copper, copper or iron pyrites (mdksika), and mercury. 187. The uparasas are discussed in KCM fol. 2ob.5-2ia.9. 188. The auto-commentary begins at fol. 2ob.2 (cf. RM, Paris MSS no. 1222, fol. 308.3). It is found in every one of the manuscripts of the KCM, held both in the ASL and NNA collections, that I have consulted: see below, n. 265. 189. KCM fol. 22b.4-23a.3190. KCM fol. 238.3-4. On the iwTza-classification of mercury by color, see below, chap. 7, n. 138. The RA (6.670-68) classifies diamonds according to caste and gender. 191. KCM fol. 248.4-258.1. Cf. RA 15.131-32, which is paraphrased by RM fol. 9b. 7-8 and 17b. 3. 192. ATM fol. 28b.8. 193. KCM fol. 29^3-7. A work entitled Sugriva[va]-s'amkarant-vidya (Spell Which Subjugates Sugriva) is devoted to the exorcism of a host of evil spirits through the intervention of this powerful figure: HTSL, p. 124. 194. KCM fol. 22a.1. The numerous manuscripts of the KCM I have consulted are more or less identical, in spite of the geographical diversity of their provenance. The sole dated manuscript I consulted is ASL MSS no. 3952, dated to A.D. 1679. The Rasasara (ASL MSS no. 4260) of Govindacarya (not the same as the RHT author) is a I4th-i5th c. text. It is an alchemical tantra, whose content is similar to that of the RA and the KCM. See above, n. 61. 195. This work has been edited twice in this century: Rasopanisat, ed. Sambhasiva Sastri (Trivandrum: Superintendent, Government Press, 1928); and Rasopanisat, 2 vols. ed. with commentary and Hindi translation by Badrinarayan Sarma (Ajmer: Krsna Gopal Ayurved Bhavan, 1959). 196. A detailed description of a site in Kerala is found in RU 16.11-13. This is one of a number of Keralan works on therapeutic alchemy. Others include the Rasavais'esika Sutra of Bhadant Nagarjuna, the Vaidyamanorama, Dhdrdkalpa, and Sahasrayoga: Sharma, Ayurved, p. 697. The RU also details the location of another south Indian site, named Rasima. This source does, however, list sites in north India: sites at which vaikrnta is found include Mewar, Swat, Nepal, Jammu, and Kashmir: Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 936.
43* Notes to Chapter Five 197. RU 1.9, 56; and in chapter colophons. 198. These are: the Prabhnamata, Vatulamata, Vaisnavamata, Aindramata, Saiikaramata, Brhaspatimata, and Saukramata. 199. RA 2.90; RU 1.90. On the ankus'a mudra as a stabilizing device to be used by the tantric sorcerer for the purposes of subjugation and attraction, see Vinasikhatantra 84-87 (ed. Teun Goudriaan [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985], with Goudriaan's commentary, pp. 54, 56. 200. On the samskaras, RU 1.20-39; on kfirpa, RU 11.12. 201. Bhuti here is a shortening ofvibhiiti, a synonym for the siddbis that are the stated goal (along with bodily immortality) of this work: Pandeya's introduction to Goraksa Samhita, vol. 2, p. ka. 202. A more simplified colophon is found in the ASL manuscript (no. 4401) of the work (entitled Svacchandas'aktyavatara): "thus ends the Production of Supernat ural Powers [which is contained within] the Svacchandasaktyavatara ("the work brought down to earth by Sakti") within the Satasahasr[y]a Samhita ("the compen dium of 100,000 verses"). The colophon to the BbP, i.e., the so-called Hadibheda, follows 9.141 of Pandeya's edition of the Goraksa Samhita (vol. 2, p. 578). The colo phon to ASL MSS 4401 occurs at the end of an additional tenth chapter. The colophon to the Kadi or "Sakta" Goraksa Samhita resembles that of the Manthanahhairava Tantra, which also ascribes itself to the Kadi variety: HTSL, p. 55. 203. BhP 9.135a, 136b, 137a: siitihabhupahitarthaya nathena prakatlkrtah/ . . . natha goraksah samproktah sarasam kalakutavat purvam vijnayate sarhyak saksad amrtavadbhavet. These verses are missing from the conclusion of chapter nine in ASL MSS no. 4401 (entitled Svacchandas'aktyavatara). This manuscript, however, contains a long tenth chapter, on tantric sorcery, whose opening verse (10.1) is identical to RA 1.1. This chapter does not, however, belong to the rest of the work. It is also missing from MSL MSS no. 1431. 204. Rasakamadhenu, ed. by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya (Bombay, Nirnaysagar Press, 1925; reprint Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1988). 205. BhP 1.78D-79: svacchandakaulave natha varsavidyamukhena va/ svayambhukaulave natha diptadyena makhena tu/ ebhir etatkramenaiva bhavajarn pujayet sada. Cf. 8.98 and 9.129. Through the use of mercury, one becomes a second Svac chanda Siva (5.178; 6.480). Svacchanda (Bhairava) is to be worshipped together with Sakti, "in accordance with the precepts mentioned in the Svacchanda" (7.108). The term kaulave is employed in the KJnN (n.j, 9; 16.24, 62) to connote an "ex pert in the Kaula practices" (kaula-vit), by which the five tantric makaras are im plied. 206. BhP i . m - 1 2 . The "Svacchanda" text mentioned in BhP 7.108 is more
433
Notes to Chapter Five likely the Tantra by the same name than a lost eponymous alchemical work. See above, n. 31. 207. On umdyoni, see BhP 2.6; on s'arvaja (changed to sarvajna in a number of manuscripts), see ASL MSS no. 4401, chap. 1, v. 10, and throughout. 208. BhP 1.77: varnisvaramahalaksml kamodayamahodayaih/ khecarieakrayogena mahamarimakhena va. Cf. 6.514. On the khecaricakra, see below, chap. 8, n. 165. 209. BhP 1.15a: pravistah sarvasastresu siddhante vamadaksine. "Uttarottara Matrtantra" is a possible reference to the Srimatottara Tantra, of which the "Sakta" or "Kadi" division of the Goraksa Samhita is an abridgment: Pandeya, introduction to Goraksa Samhita, vol. 1, pp. ta-na. MSL Hindi MSS no. 649, entitled Goraksa Samhita Bhasa, calls the Goraksa Samhita a portion (khanda) of the Srlmatottara, in its chapter colophons. 210. 4.108: kadall vanaja bandhya guduclkandajam rasam/ payasam caiva mlna nama japayasi sandhitam. The aghora mantra is evoked frequently, as is the trailokya-damara (7.163) and a form of mantric recitation called svayambhu. See below, chap. 6, nn. 59, 62, 66. 211. This evocation is found only in the closing verse of chapter nine of ASL MSS no. 4401 (fol. io6b.4-5): ratnakarokti vikhyatam bhutitantram mahodayam. 212. BhP 1.111-23. C f - RU J-H. 5 6 213. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 941. See above, n. 202. 214. BhP 1.28; 5.178, 262; 6.222; 7.144, 152, 244; 8.63-65. 215.5^1.82-89,5.62. 216. BhP 1.5, 8, 11, 25 (in ASL MSS no. 4401). On the use of dravya in the KCM, see above, n. 181. Cf. RA 1.22, which states that mercury renders one's man tras effective. On alchemical uses of menstrual blood, see below, chap. 7, sec. 3. 217. The term khanepane is found in BhP 4.77; RM fol. 278.9 (khanipdna); and Dattatreya Tantra 9.13. Khanapana is found in Akulavira Tantra [B], v. 135b (in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 106). A general discussion of vernacular terms in the BhP is found in Tripathi's foreword to Pandeya's edition of the Goraksa Samhita, vol. 2, pp. 7-8. 218. BhP 7.114-19. The itinerant alchemist is also instructed to go outside of India in his search for divine herbs (7.125). 219. BhP 4.118-3 2. See below, chap. 7, sec. 3; and chap. 8, sec. 5 on the R4 descriptions. It is worthy of note that two of the qualities which the BhP assigns to its laboratory assistants correspond to names of "mystery" Rasa Siddhas from the lists reviewed in the last chapter. Visarada ("expert") is the name of the fourth Rasa Siddha in the early lists; while sura ("Mighty") may lie at the root of the names Surasena (no. 9), Surananda, and Suravida (no. 19).
434
Notes to Chapter Five
435 Notes to Chapter Five
220. RC 6.1; 7.1; 11.88-90; 12.25; 15-32—35; I5-54; 16.72. It also mentions Svacchandabhairava (14.52), a possible reference to the BhP. 221. RC 2.1; 14.199. See also Siddhinandan Misra's introduction, pp. 12-13. The RC also mentions Srisailam (8.23), the Tapti River and Kanauj (10.129), the Vindhya mountains (14.91), and Saurashtra (14.174). The type of earth in question is potash alum, phitkari in Sanskrit. Whereas Mount Abu is presently located within the state of Rajasthan, its cultural and political ties have historically been Gujarati. Only the 1987 Bombay edition of the Rasakhanda of the RRA contains a reference to the RC: Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 954.
235. Wujastyk, "Alchemical Ghost," p. 75. Wujastyk however errs in identifying the RRA as an epitome of the KPT: this he does on the basis of chapter colophons to two of the manuscripts of the Siddha Khanda of the RRA held by the Wellcome Institute, London: ibid., pp. 75, 82. Chapter colophons to the manuscript of the Siddha Khanda I consulted (NNA MSS no. 5-3092, Ayurveda 266) call it the work of Nityanatha Siddha, son of Parvatl."
222. RC 14.58; 16.60. 223. Curiously, he is called Yasodhana in the RRS [a] list. On the basis of the RPS's use of the terms dvipantarottha and rasakarpura, Jan Meulenbeld {History, draft of 10 May 1994 p. 871) maintains that Yasodhara Bhatta was a 16th, and not a 13th c. author as previously supposed. His argument is, however, based upon a later identification of the former preparation with cobacini, a plant of foreign origin introduced into India in the 16th c.
239. Listed are Benares, Kamarupa (Assam), Hardwar, GandakI (a river in cen tral Nepal; nearby is the Saiva pilgrimage site of Muktinath), Vadarlka (Badarinath, in the Garhwal Himalayas), and Garigasagara (in the Ganges delta, West Bengal). The RHT of Govinda may also have been an eastern Indian work: see above, nn. 151-52.
224. RPS 8.32, 37; 13.1. Opium, imported to India from the west, is first men tioned in the ca. A.D. 1175-1225 Gadanigraba of Sodhala. 225. RPS 13.15. See above, chap. 4, n. 211. 226. RPS 13.14. The Gaudiyas are so called because their lineage originated in Gauda, i.e., Bengal-Orissa. 227. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 871. On the alchemical usage of the term kavi, see above, chap. 1, n. 49, and below, chap. 10, nn. 78-80. 228. Rasarnava is the reading found in all of the manuscripts of the Rasakhanda of the RRA I consulted in the Nepal National Archives (see bibliography); however Tripathi's edition of this work gives a reading of "rasayane" for RRA 1.1.16a. 229. The Svargavaidya-Kdpalika is not extant; however, Carpati figures as a Rasa Siddha in alchemical legend and is the author of a number of extant alchemical manuscripts: see above, chap. 3, n. 121. 230. The RRA cites the RC in 1.10.51-61; and it names the KCM in 5.1.7. On the former citation, see above, n. 221. 231. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 955. 232. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 954. 233. The RRA has never been edited in toto; each of its divisions has, however, been edited separately, although many are extremely difficult of access. See bibliog raphy. 234. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 947. According to this au thor, the Rasendrakhanda is largely in agreement with the Ayurvedic Madhavanidana in its etiology, symptomology, and treatment of diseases.
236. RRA 3.ub-i2a. See above, n. 10 to the preface. 237. RRS 6.1-60 = RRA 3.1.10-76. 238. On the "laksanas" of the Tantras, see HTSL, p. 10.
240. MBhT 1.5-16; 5-17-33; 8.30-34. See above, nn. 109-10, on the more or less synonymous sadbhava, kulamrta, and kauldmrta. 241. MBhT 3.7-8, 18-20; 14.13-14. 242. MBhT 7.58-60; 8.18-24; 12.14-17. 243. MBhT 7.36. 244. MBhT 1.7; 5.4; 7.2-5, 60; 8.18; 10.22; 14.21. 245. Andre Padoux, "The Body in Tantric Ritual: The Case of the Mudras," in Teun Goudriaan, ed., The Sanskrit Tradition and Tantrism (Leiden: Brill, 1990), p. 66. 246. ASL MSS no. 4281 (of which Paris MSS no. 1222 is a copy, commissioned by Palmyr Cordier, and containing a number of corrections on the Bikaner origi nal); and GAU MSS no. 862. This last manuscript does not contain the commen tary found following chapter four in the Bikaner manuscript. The ASL manuscript, from which the Paris manuscript was copied, continues for a few additional lines and ends with the colophon "thus ends the RM of Sriman Nagarjuna." All manu scripts of the RM are four chapters in length: personal communication from Dominik Wujastyk, May 1994. 247. Paris MSS no. 1222, fol. 22a.6. Cf. GAU MSS no. 861, fol. 288.9-10: vaksye sarvahitartham kaksaputam sarvasiddhikaram. 248. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 986. 249. rasendramangalam srutva yascikitsetcikitsakah/ tasya siddhir na sandeho svayam nagarjuno 'bravit. 250. RM fol. 258.2-3: parvatagrha prasada sasailavanakananam kancanamayam karisyami. On the Navanatha Carita, see Rosu, "Alchemy," p. 154, citing P. V. Parabrahma Sastry.
43« Notes to Chapter Five 251. See above, n. 60 of this chapter. The "Laghu Vivrti" commentary on the YRM is dated A.D. 1239. 252. RM fol. ib.4;6a.3. 253. RM fol. ib-T-fol. 2a.i. Here too, it follows the RA (10.36-37). The RC (15.30) gives the same measures. 254. RM fol. 4a. 1-4, borrowing from RA 6.81-84. 255. RM fol. 6a.8: mrtani lohani rasi bhavanti. I am grateful to Damodar Joshi for this interpretation of the term rasi, i.e., digestible in the same way as is rasa, chyle, the first of the eight dhatus: personal communication, Benares, December 1984. 256. Names include ekalingesvara-rasa; svacchandabbairava-rasa, manthanabhairava-rasa, jvalamiikhi-rasa, kumari-rasa, varahi-rasa, vadavamukha-rasa, etc. See above, n. 31. 257. See above, chap. 3, nn. 131, 146. Here, anjana is used in the sense of balm, unguent, or ointment, rather than in the sense of a miraculous preparation (usually with a black antimony—anjana—base) which affords invisibility and other super natural powers. 258. Of the thirty-seven folios of the Paris manuscript of the RM, fols. 15a to 29b make up chapter four alone. 259. RM fol. 163.5. Cf. RA 18.95 a n d KCM fol- 3^6-9. 260. RM fol. 17^1-2. 261. RM fol. 19b.10-21a.10. Cf. KCM fol 12a.3-12b.6262. RM fol. 2ib.5-6. Cf. RA 11.70-73. 263. RM fol. 24b.6. 264. RM fol. 25^3-4. 265. RM fol. 308.3. 266. RM fol. 30b.6. See above, n. 188. 267. RRS 1.32-59 = RHT 1.3-33. 268. Chaps. 2-5 and 7-8 of the RRS are mainly drawn from the RC (chaps. 10-12, 14, 3-4, respectively); much of chap. 6 is from RRA 3.1.1-76. Chap. 9 is mainly inspired by the RA and RC; chap. 10 samples passages from chaps. 5-9 of the RC; chap. 11 draws on the RA and the RRA: Meulenbeld, History, draft of 10 May 1994, pp. 979-80. Its two RRS Siddha lists (1.2-5 and 6.51-55) are borrowed directly from the appendix to the RM and the RRA (3.166-71). 269. Meulenbeld, History (draft of 10 May 1994), p. 979 n - I 3 6 8 r - T h e R"saratnapradipika is ASL MSS no. 4222. Its author, Ramaraja, who also compiled the Madanavinodanighantu (NNA MSS no. 4-2224, reel no. Ai 289/4), was a subject of the Pala king Madanapala, who ruled in the latter part of the 14th c. On his dates, see Sharma, Ayurved, p. 409.
437
Notes to Chapter Six 270. See Radhakrishna Sastri's long Sanskrit introduction (pp. 1-14) to his 1952 edition of the AK; and Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 38. Three copies of the Tanjore manu script are housed in the Gujarat Ayurved University's collections: GAU MSS nos. 829, 830, and 831. 271. These parallel passages are presented in the form of a chart in Radha krishna Sastri's introduction to the 1952 edition of the AK (p. 13). 272. See also/IK 1.3.101-3, on the inner yogic production and consumption of the nectar of immortality. AK 1.20.22-34 a ' s o clearly borrows from RA 1.8-19. 273. AK 1.3.9-56. Four other types of initiation are described. These are: sadhaka-, nirvana-, acmya-, and siddha-diksa (AK 1.3.57-109). 274. Brahmananda, "Jyotsna" commentary to HYP 1.1. On Narayana, who cites this work in his 17th c. commentary on the Yoga Upanisads, see Bouy, Natha-Yogin, pp. 68-74. I have not been able to locate an independent text entitled Mahakalayogas'astra. 275. All of these manuscripts are held in Jodhpur (MSL MSS 1468, 1469, 1470, and 1471, of which the last dates from samvat 1740 [A.D. 1683-84]) and Kathmandu (reel nos. A-999/7; A-1289-9; C-86/617; E-1145/12; and M-23/10, of which the first dates from samvat 1735, or A.D. 1678-79). 276. The Yogamartanda is reproduced in Mallik, SSP, pp. 56-71. On the Mahakala Samhita, see Pandey, Gorakhnath, p. 112. 277. Bouy, Natha-Yogin, p. 41. 278. This technique will be discussed at length in chap. 8, sec. 4. 279. Bernier, Voyages, p. 245. Chapter Six 1. See K. R. Srikanta Murthy's introduction to his edition of the Sariigadhara Samhita (p. xiv). Cf. BhP 9.135, in which the author calls his royal patron "Sirhha"; and RHT 19.78, in which Govinda names his patron as "Madana . . . Lord of the Kiratas." I have translated this chapter of the RA in its entirety: "The Ocean of Mercury: An Eleventh Century Alchemical Text," in Donald Lopez, ed. Indian Reli gions in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). 2. Ray's and Tripathi's editions of the RA substitute nas'ana ("destroying") for s'asaka in this half verse (1.4b), which makes little sense in the light of what follows. Moreover, s'asaka (or sasana) was the reading I found in the three manuscripts of the RA that I consulted while in India (ASL MSS nos. 4256, 4273, 4274). 3. KJnN 16.47-49. Cf. RC(1.6-7) which gives the "Kaula" etymology ofparada, the term for mercury. See above, chap. 5, sec. 5f. 4. An apparent play on words: whereas the first half verse (10a) employs the third person plural of the present indicative of the verb muc, "release, liberate"
438
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(muncanti, "they liberate"), this half verse (iob) employs the past passive participle (mukta), which must therefore be read in the sense "what ram or bull['s semen would?] not be released?" 5. This is a reference to the use of the so-called pancamrta, the "five nectars," which include the male and female sexual emissions, urine, excrement, and mar row: KJnN 11.11; and the Vimalaprabhd commentary on Kdlacakra Tantra 2.119, in Fenner, Rasayan Siddbi, p. 138. 6. Elsewhere, the text describes as feeble-minded those unknowing persons who, indulging in liquor and flesh and deluded by Siva's mdyd, prattle that "we have gone to the world of Siva" (1.29) and sends to hell those persons who, knowing mantra and Tantra, corrupt the rasa-yoga (1.45). These rhetorical verses are remi niscent of those found in the coeval Akulavira Tantra [B] (1.79-86), which mocks the trappings of yoga. j.RA 1.25. 8. RA 1.26. Cf. RC 1.8-10. Gorakhnath refers to drinking the liquor of immor tality in Gorakh Bani SabadI 137. 9. Cf. RA 2.2, 8, in which the ideal alchemical guru is described as "one who is attached to the kula path" {kula-marga-rata) and the ideal pupil as "one who is devoted to honoring the kula [divinities]" (kula-puja-rata). See also RA 18.101. 10. RA 18.48-55. The RA (1.27) refers to mercury itself as the "womb" of the alchemical lineage: for a discussion, see above, chap. 4, n. i n . n . RA 1.121b; 18.115. Cf. RA 18.47-52, 132, 144. See above, chap. 5, nn. 109-10.
12. RA 2.17-27; 6.90; 15.92, 131; 18.169b. See below, chap. 7, sec. 3. Such an assistant woman is to view herself as the daughter of the goddess Candi (or Kalika) and the god Siva (Sadasiva, Tripurantaka): RA 2.31, 34-35. 13. RA 2.1240-1253; 18.53-54. 14. HYP 3.48-49, with the commentary of Brahmananda. See below, chap. 8, sec. 4, for an extended discussion of this practice. 15. RA 1.18. A second, and more concrete interpretation, is one suggested to me by Professor Mukunda Raj Aryal of Tribhuvan University (personal commu nication, Kathmandu, June 1993). Referring to modern-day techniques of temple roof gilding, which he himself witnessed at Bhaktapur, one of the three royal capi tals of the Kathamandu Valley, Aryal noted the use of mercury for the amalgam ation of the gold used in such work. When the gilders are actually working with the mercury-gold amalgam, they stuff their mouth's with chunks of raw [buffalo?] meat; and they regularly wash their mouths out with alcohol. These would presum ably be techniques for reducing, as much as possible, the likelihood of inhaling or ingesting the mercury being used.
16. RA 6.84; 14.85; 16.34. 17. RA 1.34; RRS 1.79. Rasa, while generally referring to mercury alone, can also mean, by extension, "essential compound," e.g., mercuric sulfide, cinnabar, mica, etc.: Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," p. 363. 18.1 am grateful to Alexis Sanderson for this insight, as well as for a great num ber of other comments contained in a very long letter (of 6 July 1992) in which he responded to an early draft of this chapter. While many of the details (mainly from the Sz>7) concerning tantric iconography and mantra found in this chapter come from that letter, I will, out of a concern for brevity, refrain from citing it repeatedly. 19. This passage has a number of parallels in other tantric sources, among which may be counted a passage from Abhinavagupta's Paratrimsikavivarana (p. 88, quoted [p. 276] and translated [p. 160] in Muller-Ortega, Triadic), in which that author identifies the ether of the heart with the eternal absolute. Abhinavagupta is himself commenting on a passage from the Yogavasistha: Padoux, Vac, p. 81, n. 139. Cf. Amanaska Yoga 1.23. 20. RA 1.8. "Sivahood" (sivatvam) in one's own body, a standard goal of tantrism, is also evoked in RA 1.31a; 12.337b; 17.253b; 18.29b, 59ab. 21. Although he does not call it so by name, he is singling out orthodox Saiva Siddhanta here. See Sanderson's discussion of this school, which dominated Kash miri religious theory and practice prior to the 9th century: "Saivism," pp. 690-93. 22. The term used is pindapata, literally, the "fall[ing away] of the body." 23. RA 1.9, 13. Cf. RRS 1.54; RHT 1.28. Here, the author is denigrating the Saiva Siddhanta view of liberation upon death in favor of the Kaula doctrine of bodily immortality, which is itself inferior to the practical techniques of the alche mists, whose methods and results are proven and tangible. 24. Here I emend yatha dhyanam with samadhanam. 25. RA 1.20-22. This notion, of a stabilizing the body (pindadharanam: RA 1.18a), or bodily stability ([pinda-]sthairya), the watchword of tantric and Siddha alchemy, appears to be approprated byjayaratha, in his commentary on TA 29.12732, in which the mouth-to-mouth exchange of sexual fluids practiced by adepts whose goals are siddhis: here, Jayaratha glosses siddbi with pindasthairyadi. 26. RA 1.25. This descent is termed saktipat. But see the editor's comment (p. 6) on a variant reading, in the RC, which would make this a straightforward state ment on the reduction (pdta) of volatile energy (s'akti) in mercury. Cf. RC 10.54, which states that the grace of Siva is necessary for the liquefaction of mica. 27. RA 1.37-40; 18.193b. Cf. BhP 6.217; 7-io8; 9.76. On tantricpuja, see HT, pp. 121-62. See also below, sec. 3. 28. RA 1.59; RC 1.4, 2.21. Other clearly alchemical names of Siva mentioned in other texts are Paradesvara, "Lord of Mercury" (BhP 5.27); Rasesvara (mentioned
44"
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together with Gauri: 5.289), etc. The RC (following 2.50) also singles out the five tantric (as opposed to the eight Puranic) Bhairavas, of which each corresponds to a syllable in the all-powerful aghora mantra. Nandikesvara is singled out as a Saiva alchemical divinity in a number of sources (e.g., RC 14.58); however, this may be a divinization of a Rasa Siddha named Nandi, who is cited throughout the alchemical literature, most especially by Somadeva, author of the RC (5.77; 11.89-90; 14.128; 15.29, 35, 66; 16.64). G£ /?/>P 9.134; RRS 1.5.
also mentions Svayambhu Kaulava, a common name of Siva, or of his phallic em blem the linga in devotional Saivism. This term is formed by grafting to the term Kaula the ending -ve or -va: this is apparently a shortening oi-vit, "knower, expert, virtuoso," a term used extensively in the KJiiN(j.^o; 11.79; 14.49; 16.24, ^ 2 ! l 8 - J ; 23.1). The BhP(j. 108) also describes Svacchanda[-bhairava] in union with his con sort Sakti (s'aktisaynyuktah).
29. RA 1.59; RC 1.5, 2.21. A male Rasaiikusa[-bhairava] is named as a Rasa Sid dha in RRS 1.5. 30. RA 1.37-44; MS 1.23-28; 6.14-26; AfB*T 8.1-10; RC 1.37-38. See also Treloar, "The Use of Mercury," especially pp. 237-38; and Siddhinandan Misra's introduction to the RC (p. 5), in which he discusses the alchemical grounds for the foundation and installation of the rasalinga. Cf. MBhTj. 58-69 and 12.14-18, with notes (pp. 38-39, 59) on the benefits of worshipping lingas made from the eight metals, mercury, flowers of sulfur, etc. This construction is discussed extensively in chap. 8, sec. 5. 31. See above, chap. 5, nn. 29-32, 205. 32. RA 2.105-6, 126-30 Cf. RC 2.42; RRS 6.57. 33. RA 1.37-40, 43. Cf. RRS 6.19, in which the figure is raised to ten million. Other Saiva deities evoked in the RA (18.186) are Nandikesa and Kumara. On the alchemical significance of the important Siva linga of Kedarnath, see below, chap. 8, n. 153. 34. RA 1.48-51. 35. Rosu, "Renouveau," pp. 65-66; and Majumdar, "Medicine," in Bose, ed., Concise Histmy, p. 233. 36. RA 2.110-18 describes an image of Rasa-Bhairava which the alchemist proj ects upon on his own subtle body: this corresponds to similar configurations found in a number of tantras (Padoux, Vac, pp. 120-21; Sanderson, "Mandala," pp. 186, 190-92). "Masters of yoga" (yogindras) are to be worshipped with argbya, flesh, fish, andyoginimantras: RA 18.55. C£ RRS 6.56. 37. RA 12.83; BhP 6.46. The five faces of Sadasiva (mentioned in RA 2.110-11) are supports for that great god, the supreme attributeless divinity of the Saiva Siddhantins. On this, see T A. Gopinath Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography, 2 vols. in 4 tomes (Madras: Law Road Printing House, 1914-16), vol. 2, pp. 367-68, 374; appendix B, pp. 187-91. 38. The BhP actually calls this divinity Svacchanda Siva (5.178), Svacchanda Kaulava (8.98; 9.129: the Svacchanda of the Kaula virtuousi: kaulavit), "the slayer of Time" (kalaghna), or simply Svacchanda (7.108). The same text (8.98; 9.129)
39. RA 2.8, 121a; BhP 6.229, z 8 l > 297> 399- 43 1 ; c f - KfiN 8 - 2 7~45- T h e Bhp (7.369) states that offerings to demonic female divinities (pisacis, raksasts, vdmadevts), made with inauspicious practices, either Svayambhuva, mantra-based, or Sakta, never succeed. 40. On the highly elaborate Trika cult of these goddesses, see Sanderson, "Sai vism," pp. 673-74, 681-82; and idem, "Mandala," pp. 188-89, '9941. RA 2.62. Cf. TA 15.331c—333b. In this role MalinI "encompasses" the three goddesses. More often, this role is played by either KalasamkarsinI or Matrsadbhava: Alexis Sanderson, "The Visualization of the Deities of the Trika," in Andre Padoux, ed., Uimage divine: atlte et meditation dans Vhindouisnte (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1990), pp. 45-47. See below, n. 50. 42. RA 2.47-73, especially 2.51-63, 69-71. A nearly identical mandala is de scribed in RC 2.23-35. This mandala is graphically reproduced in Rosu, "Mantra et Yantra" p. 252. Quite different is the mandala described in RRS6.40-57, in which it is the minerals themselves, as well as the twenty-eight founding Siddhas of the alchemical tradition, that are worshipped in sequence. 43. &4 2.50-51, 72. 44. RA 2.52-53. The RRS (6.22) is more explicit than the RA on the meditative superimposition of these anthropomorphic images upon the rasalinga. 45. On this practice, of working from the outside in (laya-krama), see HT, p. 164. 46. RA 2.56. Moving clockwise from the east, their names are Sakra (Indra); Skanda; Rudra; Pavana (Agni); Siva; Pavaka (Vayu); Uma; and Vyapaka ("the Emanator"). 47. RA 2.57-588. Their names are Lepika ("[Transmutation by] Smearing"); Ksepika ("[Transmutation by] Casting"); Ksarika ("Corroding, Reducing [Metals] to Ashes"); Ranjika ("Tinting, Coloring" [of Metals]); LohatJ ("Metallica"); Bandhakari ("Binder [of Mercury]"); Bhucara ("[The Power of] Moving over the Earth" [at Will]"); MrtyunasinI ("Destroyer of Death"); VibhutI ("Superhuman Powers"); and Khecari ("Power of Flight"). In the Vidya Pltha, the dutl is the con secrated consort with whom the tantric practitioner copulates in order to produce the mingled sexual fluids he offered to the gods: Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 671.
443 Notes to Chapter Six
Notes to Chapter Six 48. RA 2.59. Their names are Maksika (copper pyrites); Vimala (iron pyrites); Saila (s'ildjatu, bitumen); Capala (selenium); Rasaka (calamine); Sasyaka (copper sulfate); Gandhaka (sulfur); and Tala (haratdla, orpiment). 49. RA 2.60-61. These are the Vidyesvaras: see below, n. 56. 50. RA 2.62. "In the lotus's pericarp [at the heart of the mandala], starting from the east are the four saktis? Here, Apara is described as vajras'akti and Parapara as kdnti: these epithets are taken up by Somadeva in RC 2.23-24, who names the four alchemical Goddesses (rasa-s'aktis) as MalinI, VajrinI ("Diamond Maiden"), Kanta ("Magnetite Maiden"), and Abhra ("Mica Maiden"). Para and Apara are also men tioned in this source. 51. RA 2.63a, 64b. 52. RA 2.63b-64a, 65-663. 53. RA 2.69-72. 54. The classic discussion of the tantric superenthronements is Sanderson, "Mandala," pp. 178-82, 187. I am deeply indebted to this author for his detailed commentary on the superenthronements found in the RA passage, which I repro duce here. 55. In RA 2.8b, the alchemical disciple is described as one devoted to the wor ship of the circle of the yoginis and the kula. The presence of the eight mahdrasas, the principal reagents with mercury in the alchemical samskdras, is troubling. Al though these are the "inner circle" of mineral reagents vis-a-vis mercury, they are never divinized and do not seem to fit well into this mandala. 56. Rao, Elements, vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 396-97, and Sanskrit appendix B, pp. 187-91. Their names are: Anantesa, Suksma, Sivottama, Ekanetra, Ekarudra, Trimurti, Srikantha, and Sikhandi. 57. Svacchandabhairava rides on the shoulders of the preta Sadasiva in the SvT (2.81b); Sadasiva is also the mahdpreta who symbolizes the Goddess's lotus seat in her tantric worship: HT, p. 144. Cf. TA 5.322a. Placed before the tantric image of Pancali Bhairava in Kathmandu is the recumbent image of a figure called Vetala, whose name evokes the "vampires" of tantric sorcery who possess corpses (pretas in this context) and whose services are sought out by powerful tantric practitioners. The iconography of this recent image appears to reproduce that of Svacchandab hairava. On such vampires, see below, chap. 10, sec. 1. 58. These passages, from book four of the SvTznd chap. 22 of the Netra Tantra, are discussed in Padoux, Vac, pp. 404-11. 59. More specifically, Rasabhairava is identifiable with the sakala ("with attri butes") form of Svacchandabhairava. See 5i;T2.88b-94a, for Svacchandabhairava's appearance; and 2.115a, which states that his consort is seated on his lap. For a
discussion of sakala and niskala mantras in nondualist Kashmir Saivism, see Padoux, "Body," pp. 72-73. 60. Nitydsodas'ikdrnava 144b, 145a; Devfrahasya, p. 100; Puras'carydrnava, p. 806. 61. Sanderson, "Saivism in Kashmir," in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, pp. 16-17. 62. RA 2.68: Om hrim krim rasesvaraya mahakalaya mahabalayaghorabhairavaya vajravira krodhakarikala kslauh kslah. The same mantra is found in SvT 1.41-43. 63. RA 2.72a: pujayedrasasiddhyartham vidyaya pancabljaya. Decoded, Rasarikusl's mantra is "aim hrim srim kllm sauh"—which is, like her iconography, mod eled after that of Bala Tripurasundari (aim kllm sauh). It also resembles the five pranavas or seed mantras of the Kubjika cult (aim hrim srim phrem sauh). Cf. RA 2.84, where the five elements are identified with these same five seed-mantras of the rasdnkusimudrd; and in which the rasankusa mantra is praised (2.89-90) and the construction of a circular oblatory basin—homologized with the goddess's sexual organ (yonicakra) and with which mantra-based worship is also to be performed— is described (2.77-85). 64. RA 3.5. 65. RA 3.19, which identifies the "eighty-eight thousand" herbal preparations in which the alchemist will later macerate his mercury and other elements with the kula-khecdri, the "sky-going lineage." These are all brought together in the so'ham hamsa utterance. 66. RA 67. RA 68. RA 69. RA
2.76; 18.60b. Cf. RRS 6.38; RC 2.47. 3.16. 3.6. 3.27.
70. RA 2.97-98. These mantras are used here, in conjunction with mantra-nydsa, for predicting the success of a future alchemical operation. Using a hexagonal man dala upon whose corners are figured six forms of Bhairava and at whose center is figured Rasabhairava, the practitioner causes girls and boys whom he has brought together to serve as media for posing questions to the divinity: RA 2.92-103, dis cussed in Rosu, "Mantra et Yantra" pp. 254-55. 71. Padoux, Vac, p. 47; Gonda, Medieval, p. 171. The title of chapter three of the RA is "mantra-nyasa." 72. Sanderson, "Mandala," pp. 174-75; Wheelock, "Vedic," in Alper, Mantra, pp. 103-4; Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, pp. 162-81. In the RC (2.51), alchemical mantras are to be imposed upon a patient as a means to curing him of disease: Rosu, "Mantra et Yantra" p. 254.
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Notes to Chapter Seven
73. On this, see below, chap. 9, nn. 40-47. 74. RA 3.2. Her anthropomorphic image, to be worshipped with the five Vidya bljas ("seed mantras") has already been discussed in 2.69-73. 75. This is clarified, somewhat, in RA (3.4a): "In the same way as a linga's chas ing (i.e., the yoni in which it is set) defines the linga's form, so that which 'linga's'— i.e., maya (lingimdya: alternate reading lingitdyd, in ASL MSS no. 4256, fol. 1 ib.3)—is to that which is "linga'ed? (Or, "that which marks defines that which is marked"). The line of the vulva is called by the name "ether" in the fifth house: RA 3.4b. Cf. RA 2.114-16, for a list of explanatory synonyms for "ether" as a support for the inner visualization of a tantric deity. On the five houses as the five elements, see Kaviraj, Bharatiy 1:555-56. On the five houses as the five components of the omkdra, of which the fifth is the subtle ndda, see F.ck, Banaras, p. 115. 76. RA 3.5-78. Here, I am following the reading of the Kashmir manuscript used by Ray in his critical edition, as well as emendations suggested by Alexis Sanderson (letter of 6 July 1992), who substitutes krom—the seed syllable which animates the mantra and which is known as the "goad"—for form, which is not a normal seed syllable. On krom as the goad (ankusa), see Nityasodasikdrnavarjuvimarsini, p. 150, line 9. Bhairava's statement in 3.3a, that "four (houses) are placed in front, while hamsa is the fifth" would also refer to the fact that hamsa is the final element of the kdlapds'a mantra. 77. Cow dung and ashes are standard exoteric and esoteric purifying agents. 78. RA 3.7-8. 79. RA 3.9-12. The kubjika mantra is mentioned again in RA 3.31a. 80. Schoterman, Sapahasra Samhita, p. 14. 81. Ibid., p. 37. 82. These four are identified with the four cardinal directions on the inner square of the important Kaula siddhacakra, which is graphically reproduced in Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 81, and which has been discussed above, chap. 5, nn. 77,
87. These include the four-syllabled hamso'ham, identified as the kulakhecari {RA 3.19); rasdhkusl (3.20b); trisiras (3.22a); damara (3.23a), etc.
93-9483. SSS 1.2 with Schoterman's commentary {Sapahasra Samhita, pp. 32, 36-37). The KJnN (16.50) may be referring to the latter group in its mention of the four kulasiddhas. 84. CandakapalinI is the supreme goddess of the yamalas, the "Union Tantras" of the Vidya Pltha; it is to her that the hathayogic Gheranda Samhita is revealed. Kali was worshipped as CandakapalinI in mainstream Saiva funerary rites in medi eval Kashmir: Sanderson, "Mandala," p. 201 n. 156. 85. RA 3.13-16. 86. The tripurdbhairavimantra is found in 3.25. My thanks to Alexis Sanderson for clarifying the language of this difficult passage.
88. In verse 38, the goddess asks Bhairava a question concerning diksa; verse 83 b begins, "The practitioner who has been so initiated . . ." Cf. RRS 6.27-31. 89. Summarized in letter from Alexis Sanderson, dated 6 July 1992. 90. Kuldrnava Tantra 14.89. 91. On this, see Gonda, "Diksa," in Change and Continuity, pp. 439, 443. See below, chap. 10, sec. 2. 92.John Woodroffe, Principles of Tantra: The TantratattvaofSriyuktaSiva Candra Vidydrnava Bhattdcdrya, 2 vols. (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1970), 2:477, cited in Walter, Alchemy and Medicine, p. 70 (n. 23 to p. 16): "In order that this unclean body may be purified, it is dried up by means of the Vayumantra and burnt and reduced to ashes by means of the Agnimantra." See below, chap. 9, sec. 3. 93. T. A. Gopinath Rao, Elements, 2:1, pp. 10-11, cited in Gonda, "Diksa," in Change and Continuity, p. 430: "ancient and widespread ideas in connection with 'initiation,' 'consecration,' or 'transmutation' have here been embedded in the typi cally Saivite pattern of Hinduism and are put into practice in the framework of Hindu ritual, requiring different kundas (receptacles for fire) and mandalas ('mys tic drawings')." Chapter Seven 1. RV 1.105.2 describes the exchange of a certain rasa between the partners in sexual intercourse. 2. See, for example, ZJF1.23.19; 9.86.39; Atharva Veda 1.4.4; 1-6.2-3; 3.31.6—11; Satapatha Brah?nana 1.6.4.5; 6.2.2.6; 7.3.1.3. See above, chap. 1, nn. 40-45. 3. See, for example, Satapatha Brahmana 7.3.1.26. 4. As, for example, thepranagnihotra: Vaikhanasa Smarta Sutra 2.18. 5. Maitri Upanisad 5.2. The term occurs in an emanatory schema, in which tamas, the lowest gutta, differentiates into rajas, which in turn differentiates into sattvd, which "when impelled, flowed forth as rasa" 6. Indeed, soma as oblation and agni as sacrificial fire are identified with sun and moon in Satapatha Brahmana 1.6.3.23-25. An alternative reading of samarasa is sdmarasya. 7. Goraksa Paddhati 1.71-75, which is quite nearly identical to Yogamdrtaiida 6164. The two texts are expansions on the 13th c. Goraksa Sataka. 8. Caraka Samhita 6.7.71. 9. Dasgupta, Histoiy, vol. 2, pp. 357-59. 10. Natyasastra 6, cited in G. K. Bhat, Rasa Theory and Allied Problems (Baroda: M. S. University of Baroda, 1984), p. 11.
447
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Notes to Chapter Seven 11. A yogic parallel are the seven fires of yoga (yogagnis), which render the body "cooked": Markandeya Purana, cited in Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, vol. i, p. 178. Cf. Gorakb Bant, Sabadl 156-57. A late south Indian alchemical source, the Yogimuni 1000 ([3.10-62], ed. and tr. S. Raghunathan [Madurai: Madurai University, 1982]) de scribes how the conjunction of the five elements with the guru brings about the ripening {pac) of the elements and metals into gold. On the wide semantic range of the verb pac, see Charles Malamoud, "Cuire le monde," in Cuire le monde, pp. 3 5-71. 12. Cf. Caraka Samhita 6.1.78-80 quoted below, chap. 10, n. 102. 13. Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 517-80. 14. Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," pp. 376-78. See above, chap. 3,nn. 12, 30-32,133. 15.flC11.516. RA 1.36; RRS 1.76. 17. The term rasa in the singular also refers to essential compounds, such as cinnabar, mica, pyrites, etc., in their native states: Rosu, "Yoga et alchimie," p. 363. Kautilya's ca. 1st c. B.C. (Arthasdstra 2.12.2-4) reference to rasa would therefore be to smelted ore (and not to mercury, as some have argued). See also Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practices," in Bose, Concise History, p. 305. 18. The mahdrasas act directly on mercury; the uparasas catalyze the effects of the mabarasas: Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 342. Mercurial preparations in which plants are used are called rasausadha and rasabhasma rasayana (RA 12.358). A number of "magical waters" are alternatively referred to as rasas or udakas: RA 12.189-292; RRS 11.125; KCKT8.18-39; Kardaswamy, History, p. 343; Subbarayappa, "Chemi cal Practices," in Bose, Concise History, pp. 336-37; Vimalaprabha 202cd, in Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, p. 153. 19. RC 1.3. Elsewhere (15.2), Somadeva states that the essence of all remedies is to be found in mercury (suta). 20. Prior to the 12 th c , this branch of Hindu alchemy was termed lohavada, "the doctrine of metals": personal communication from Damodar Joshi, Benares, September 1985. The modern Hindi term for alchemy, kimiya[gari], is a late bor rowing from the Persian: Ramcandra Varma, ed., Samksipt Hindi Sabd Sagar (Be nares: Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1981), p. 206. 11. RA 17.165-66: yatha lohe tatha dehe kartavyah sutakah sada/ samanam kurute devi pravisan dehalohayoh/ purvam lohe parikseta tato dehe prayojayet. 22. raslbhavanti lohani deha api susevanat rasendrastena vikhyatah: RRA 2.1.7, cited in Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 173, n. 4; Cf. RM, Paris MSS no. 1222, fol. 6a.8; and RA 7.15 iab. Misra takes rasi to mean "oxidized" in the case of metals and "joined with chyle and the other dhatus" in the case of the human body. 23. RA 16.25b: dviriya iva Sarikarah.
24. On rasacikitsa, see Ros,u, "Renouveau contemporain," pp. 65-66; and Majumdar, "Medicine," in Bose, ed. Concise History, p. 233. 25. Caraka Samhita 6.7.1. 26. Satapatha Brahmana 12.7.1.7: 12.8.1.1, 15. 27. Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.1-5. 28. Satapatha Brahmana 2.1.1.5; 11.1.6.1-11. In this egg, the silver part of the shell becomes earth and the golden part sky: Chandogya Upanisad 3.19.1-2. A Ti betan creation myth reproduces these themes: Asian Mythologies, s.v. "Cosmogonic Myths of Tibet." 29. Satapatha Brahmana 3.5.2.27; Aitareya Brahmana 74.6; Maitrayant Samhita 2.2.2.
30. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), p. 362. The notion of a "ferment" (Greek: mdtza) that could be used to effect a "biological" replication of metals is found in the pre-common era Corpus Hermeticum, the Greco-Syriac Pseudo-Zosimus (ca. A.D. 300), the Persian Jabir ibn Hayyan (9th c.) and the Euro pean Geber (13th a): ibid., p. 366. 31. Ramayana 1.36.10-22. Cf. Mahabharata 13.84.68-70. Another such mineral myth is found in the early (pre-8th c. B.C.) Jaiminiya Brahmana (1.223). 32. Yajur Veda 18.13, c ' t e ( ^ m Sharma, Ayurved, p. 466. The #0(14.5) states that the semen from which vahni-sambhuta ("fire-born") gold was produced was that of Siva, semen which Agni vomited after having swallowed it in the myth of the birth of Skanda. The RRS (5.6) agrees, calling such gold (vahnija-svarna). See below, n. 56, for identifications of gold with female sexual fluids. 33. Dhyanabindu Upanisad 1.5, in The Yoga Upanisads with the Commentary of Sri Upanisad-Brahmayogin, ed. A. Mahadeva Sastri, Adyar Library Series, vol. 6 (Ma dras: Adyar Library and Research Center, 1968), p. 189. 34. As early as the Atharva Veda (11.3.7-8), the metals are identified with con stituents of the body, according to the brahmanic system of adhydtman-adhiyajnaadhidaivata system of homologies. Here, flesh is identified with the "dark metals" Gead and iron?), blood with copper, ashes with tin, and complexion with gold. See above, chap. 1, n. 46. 35. This is the same god who, in Kaula traditions, throws the Kaula scriptures, revealed by Siva, into the sea. Matsyendranath, the "Lord of the Fishes-Nath," re covers these, and later transmits them to humanity. See below, chap. 8, sec. 2b. 36. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty summarizes a number of such myths from the epics and Puranas, in Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), pp. 105, 107-8. 37. Tamils call copper sulfate nilakantha, identifying it with the blue of Siva's
44*
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Notes to Chapter Seven
Notes to Chapter Seven
throat after he swallowed the poison that fell into the Ocean of Milk from the mouth of Vasuki, the serpent churning rope employed by the gods and antigods: personal communication from N. Sethu Raghunathan, Madurai, January 1985. 38. RC 14.3-4; reproduced in RRS 5.4-5. The latter form of gold is undoubtedly a reference to the myth of the golden embryo, the hiranyagarbha, of Satapatha Brdhmana 11.1.6.1-11. 39. Rasakamadhenu 2.1.4, cited in Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 496. 40. The Lohasaiuasvam ofSriSuresvara (w. 9, 72-74, 103-4, a n ^ 11^)' w ' t ^ 1 Hindi commentary by Pavani Prasad Sharma, ed. Brahmashankar Mishra (Benares: Chowkhamba, 1965); and the Rasendn Bbiskara (3.86—4.119; 5.6-26; 6.12) ofLaksminarayana (Jaipur: n.p., 1896). On the dating of the former text, see Meulenbeld, History (draft of May 10, 1994), p. 775.
bCud len gyi man ngag (On the Extraction of the Essence) of Bo dong. This differs from the Hindu myth in that Siva is made to be a form taken by Vajrasattva to unite with the Goddess; she scatters his seed about to make mercury: Encyclopedia Tibetica, vol. 2, pp. 522-23, cited in Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, pp. 80-81.
41. Padmavat 24.2 (= 245). A complete edition of this work, with a Hindi com mentary, is Rajnath Sharma, Jayasi Granthdvali (Padmavat—Tikd Sahit) (Agra: Vinod Pustak Mandir, 1965, pp. 476-81). A partial edition, but with a superior commentary, is The Padumaviati of Malik Muhammad Jaisi, edited with a [Hindi] commentary, translation, and critical notes by George Grierson and Sudhakara Dvivedi, Bibliotheca Indica, n.s. 877 (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1896). Par tial English translations, based on Grierson and Dvivedi's edition, are A. G. Shirreff, Padmdvati ofMalik Muham?nad Jaisi, Bibliotheca Indica, 267 (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1944); and Lakshmi Dhar, Padumavati: A Linguistic Study of the 16th Centuiy Hindi (Avadhi) (London: Luzac & Co., Ltd., 1949). This passage is found in Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawdti, p. 530; Sharma, Jayasi GranthavalJ, p. 386; and Shirreff, Padmdvatl, p. 148. 42. Gorakh Bdni, SabadI 118, attributed to Ratannath or Ratan Plr, identifies iron with the Muslim holy man (pir), whose yogic teachings he identifies with cop per. Silver is equated with Muhammad and gold with God (khudai, sudai). 43. These include the Rasakautuka (ASL MSS no. 4203: fol. 2b.4-n; fol. 38.1-5); the Sivakalpadruma of Sivanatha (ASL MSS no. 4349: fol. 2a.i-io); the 15th c. Rasasindhu of Visnudeva (ASL MSS no. 4267: fol. ia.9-11); and the 15th c. Rasasanketakdlika of Camundakayastha (1.2-4). 44. Mercury is thus a remedy for tdraka-roga, the disease of Taraka: Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 170. 45. The 1 ith-i4th c. Skanda Parana (1.29.87) seems to refer to this myth in its account of the birth of Skanda. At one point in this myth, the gods all become pregnant because Agni, who has already swallowed the semen, is the mouth of the gods. Then, "Siva's semen having torn open their bellies, an ugly mercurial [pdrada] lake of that [semen], 100 yojanas [in expanse], was formed." 46. A Buddhist version of this myth is found in a 14th c. Tibetan source, the
47. On the adulteration of the mercury in these wells, see RRS 1.80, and AK 1.15. Other alchemical works containing this origin myth and references to the five wells include the Rasakautuka (ASL MSS no. 4203, fols. 2b.4-3a.5X Sivakalpadruma of Sivanatha (ASL MSS no. 4349, fols. 2a.i-io), and Rasasindhu of Visnudeva (ASL MSS no. 4267, fols. ia.o-2a.2). 48. On the location of the land of the Daradas see Wink, Al-Hind, p. 232; Ray, Histoiy, vol. 1, p. 43, n. 1; D. C. Sircar, Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India, 2d revised ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977), p. 34 and n. 4; p. 68 and n. 9; and Sharma's notes to RRS, pp. 207-8. See also above, chap. 3, n.93. 49. The word cinnabar is derived from the Greek kinndbari, which has the same (unknown) root as the Persian zanjifrah: Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "cinnabar." Another Sanskrit term for cinnabar is hingula, which is identical to the Persian term: Watt, Dictionary, 5:232. The nearest source of naturally-occurring ore cinna bar to the Indian subcontinent is Garmsir (Pir Kisri) in Afghanistan (Watt, Diction ary, 5:233). 50. Whence the statements of RA 7.72 and 11.82: "Sulfur is, by its nature and by its form, the form of mercury (rasarupa)V "None of the rasas or uparasas is supe rior to sulfur." The former statement is a reference to the Indian distinction between essence and existence as "name" (ndma) and "form" (rupa). In fact, all the major iatrochemical preparations of mercury (kajjali, rasasindhura, rasaparpati, and makaradhvaja are essentially compounds of mercury and sulphur: Bhagwan Dash, Alchemy and Metallic Medicines in Ayurveda (New Delhi: Concept Publishing, 1986), p. 102.
51. RA 7.57-66; RRS 3.2-12; KCKT44.2-3. 52. The problematic term in this passage is sambala, which the commentary to recension n of the MB£T glosses as "that which is released monthly by one's wives." This commentary is indicated by Michael Magee in his translation of the work: Shri Matrika Bheda Tantra, pp. iii and n. 1 to p. 1. 53. For the theory concerning submarine volcanos, see Sharma's commentary to RRS, chap. 11 (p. 210). On the doomsday fire and underwater fire jets or gas vents, see Kalydn Sakti Ank (Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1934), p. 640. This image is transferred to the subtle body in KJfiN 2.1-3; ar>d t n e "Sakta" Goraksa Samhitd 23.117-18. The RA (9.5, 8) describes, in succession, two types of saline reagents (bida) called vadavamukha zndjvdlamukha. See below, chap. 8, sec. 2c.
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Notes to Chapter Seven 54. Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas ofthe World, prepared by the Economist Intelli gence Unit, 2d ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 88. Cf. Sharma's commentary (p. 184) to chap. 11 of the RRS. Much of the sulfur in India comes from sulfur springs which are aho pithas of the Goddess: ibid., pp. 211, 214-15. 55. On the term lingam, see Watt, Dictionary, 5:232, and Bose, Concise History, p. 317. 56. Powdered cinnabar may also be used for the tracing of two-dimensional mystic diagrams (yantras, mandalas). The preparation of gold and mercury used to form the rasalinga is described in RRS 6.17-18. Here, in contradistinction to the the epic origin myth of the metal, gold is made to be the mineral homologue of the Goddess: see Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 83, quoting an uncited source: "The Goddess in the form of gold, Sadasiva in the form of mercury, the liriga made through the union of these is called the rasalinga^ It should be recalled that two forms of natural gold are said, in the RRS (5.4-5) to arise from the rajoguna and from the placental material of the egg of Brahma, respectively: both of these origins evoke the fe male element. 57. Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practices," in Bose, Concise History, p. 330. 58. This constitutes the tenth of the eighteen branches of Sittar alchemy. The practitioner holds three such gulikas in his hand and mouth and attached around the waist to aid in raising the kundalini, and transforming the subtle body: C. S. Narayanaswami Aiyar, "Ancient Indian Chemistry and Alchemy of the ChemicoPhilosophical Siddhanta System of the Indian Mystics," in Proceedings and Transac tions of the Third All-India Oriental Conference, Madras, 22-24 Dec. 1924 (Madras: Law Printing House, 1925), pp. 600-8. Purusottamananda Tlrtha, who runs an Ayurvedic dispensary in Trichur (Tamil Nadu), carries such a gulika on a belt he wears around his waist: personal communication from Catherine Clementin-Ojha, Paris, February 1992. See below, chap. 9, n. 109 on the term gulikd/gutikd. 59. MBhT 8.31-33. The term svapuspa, used here for "menstrual blood," is de fined in MBhT 5.31 as the first menstrual blood shed by a woman after her deflora tion. The MBhT (5.27-33) describes the six types of women whose menstrual blood may be employed in tantric ritual. Cf. RA 2.25. On cincini, see above, chap. 4, n. 41. 60. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), p. 456. Yogiraja Vaidyaraja, "Yoga Research on Mercury and the Dhatus," Cakra, A Journal ofTantra and Yoga [New Delhi] 4 (March 1972), p. 186. Cf. the "Sakta" Goraksa Samhitd 13.9961. S. Madhihassan, Indian Alchemy or Rasdyana (New Delhi: Vikas, 1979), PP47-48. 62. Gold is to be placed in the tumuli (samddhis) of the Nath Siddhas: Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 40, 42. On similar practices among the Munda-speaking Asurs of
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Notes to Chapter Seven central India, a metal-working tribal people, for whom the soul is composed of iron, see Ruben, Eisenschmiede, p. 88. 63. Madhihassan, Indian Alchemy, p. 47; Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 129. 64. Sharma's commentary to RRS, p. 208; and NSC, p. 295. The tribal Bhlls and Birhors continue the use of blood: Ruben, Eisenschmiede, p. 115. 65. The Kalyan Sakti Ank (p. 648) reproduces an unspecified Puranic passage which states that wherever the body parts of the goddess SarJ cut away by Visnu's discus fell, they took the lithic form (pds'anatdm) of the siddha pithas. The most complete discussion of the pithas of the Goddess, and the correspondences to Sati's body parts, is D. C. Sircar, The Sakta Pithas (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973). The Goddess is herself called a stone, or stone or mountain-born (sailaja, Parvarj) and identified with the lithic in a wide array of Hindu contexts: see Madeleine Biardeau, L'Hindouisme, Anthropologie d'une civilisation (Paris: Flammarion, 1981), p. 143. 66. On the identification of the Kamakhya stone as red arsenic, see Karel R. van Kooij, Worship ofthe Goddess According to the Kdlikd Purdna, pt. 1, A Translation with an Introduction and Notes of Chapters 54-69 (Leiden: Brill, 1972), p. 26, citing Kdlikd Purdna 64.85-86 and Heinrich Zimmer, "Die Indische Weltmutter," in Eranosjahrbuch (Ancona, Switzerland: Eranos, 1938), pp. 204-5. Dyczkowski ("Kun dalini," p. 7, note 13) maintains that the stone is black. 67. The Yonitantra, ed. J. A. Schoterman (Delhi: Manohar, 1980), p. 24; Bharati, Tantric Tradition, p. 259-60; Bhattacharya, History, p. 133; Frederique ApfelMarglin, Wives ofthe God-King (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 240; and Dyczkowski, "Kundalini," p. 7 n. 13. 68. Dvivedi, Ndth Sampraddy, p. 18; Kalyan Sakti Ank, p. 640; Briggs, Gorakh nath, p. 18; Dikshit, Navandtha Caritra, p. 22. Gorakh created mountains of gold, crystal, and ocher (geru) as a means to "awakening" his debauched guru Matsyendra, according to the Ndtha Caritra of Raja Man Singh of Jodhpur: NSC, p. 30. 69. Van Kooij, Worship, p. 26, citing Kdlikd Purdna 64.J3 and 76.89. The ad jacent mercurial cave is a creation of the 13 th c. Simhasanadvatrimsika (Franklin Edgerton, Vikramas Adventures or the Thirty-two Talesofthe Throne, 2 vols., Harvard Oriental Series, 26 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926), 1:182-86; 2:166-67). Coloring (ranjana) through amalgamation is the greater part of trans mutation in a number of alchemical contexts: see below, chap. 9, n. 23. 70. On Hiriglaj Devi, her geography, pilgrimage, history, and the present-day relationship of the Nath Siddhas to her cult, see Sastri, Agneya Tirth Hingldj, throughout; Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 89 (on the use ofthumrd), 103-10; and Encyclo pedia of Religion and Ethics (New York: Scribner's, 1914), s.v. "Hiriglaj," by William Crooke.
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Notes to Chapter Seven 71. A description of this site is found in a 16th c. Tibetan guide to Ca-ri, written by Padma dkar-po. This is cited at length in R. A. Stein, Grottes-Matricaet Lieux Saints de la de'esse en Asie orientate (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 1988), PP- 37-4372. RA 2.17-19, 25. The kakini is again described in 18.165-67, where she is called kamini. She is called kalini in RRS 6.34. Cf. BhP 4.129-32; and RM fols. 35^3-5; 36a. 1-2. 73. RA 2.23; RRS 6.34. Kakini is the name of a female divinity whose worship is described at length in chapters 58-62 of the Rudrayamala Tantra. Here, she is one of six consorts of Siva [Saktis], who are identified with the six cakras, all of whose names are derived from Sanskrit phonemes: dakini, rakinf, lakini, kakini, s'akini and hakini. In this context, kakini is identified with the atiahata cakra, located in the heart (15.54-56). 74. RA 2.20-24; RRS 6.32-33. 75. RRS 6.35; RA 14.2. A preparation of zinc carbonate, mercury, and menstrual blood transmutes lead into gold: RA 7.31. In fact, the percentage of sulfur in a woman's blood is the highest at the time of her menses: personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, March 1985. Sulfur, in addition to increasing the po tency of mercury, is said in the RRS (3.17, 45) to increase the potency of male semen. 76. KCM fols. 12a.8-9; 2 ia.6-7. A procedure similar to the first of these is also prescribed in the eponymous KCKT. Here (8.68-70), an alchemical charm for in vulnerability in battle is produced by placing equal amounts of gold, silver, and copper in menstrual blood, wrapping the whole with a lotus filament, sprinkling it with cold water, and placing it in the yantra sthana. A nearly identical preparation, called a "tigress pill" (vyaghri-gtitika), is described in the RA (12.348-49) and the RM (fol. i6b.4-5). These latter two sources instruct the alchemist to place this preparation inside a woman's vulva, her guhya-sthana (rather than in a yantrasthana). 77. BhP 2.5b-6a; 4.7; 5.1. Cf. RHT 3.28b on mercury that is bound when it enters the yoni (ydvadvis'ati nayonau tavadbandhatn kuto bhajate). 78. BhP 3.290-308: purandhre gaurirajasa tadbljena bhavantu tat/ jalajadyamlasamyuktam bandhanam yati sutakah. Later, the same source prescribes a prepara tion containing menstrual blood for increasing the powers of mercury to absorb (grasa: literally, "swallow, consume") mica (5.284-87); and for "cutting the wings" (paksaccheda) of volatile mercury (6.15-17). Here, one is to dry, on a piece of blue cloth, a woman's menstrual blood. Through this cloth, one is to strain human breast milk, the which is then macerated together with male semen.
♦53 Notes to Chapter Seven 79. For a discussion of this tantric ritual, see Schoterman, Yonitantra, pp. 26-32. Ku?ida[m]golaka?n is an elixir in KCM(hSh MSS no. 3952, fol. 328.3-5); a kundagola produced by a Candall or a RaksasI is also mentioned in the RM (fols. 9^7-8; i7b-3). Cf.MBbT 5.19-21. 80. RA 18.47-49, 115-16, 144, 165-72. An alchemical teaching by the Tibetan Vimalamitra (the sixth of the eight teachings of the Bdud-nsi-bam-po-brgyad-pa, called the Amrtakundali in Sanskrit) enjoins that "there be sexual union during the time of her [the female consort's] menstrual flow ('dzagpa)—her great blood (khrag chen) together with the yogin's semen will be known as the most excellent sort of rasayana": Walter, Role ofAlchemy, pp. 144-45, 168, 173. 81. For a historical discussion of the work and its author, as well as a summary of the plot, see McGregor, Hindi Literature, pp. 67-70. For full bibliographic de tails, see above, n. 41. 82. Birava lona is an imaginary transmuting herb; however Lona (from the San skrit lavana, "salty, beautiful") is also the name of a powerful witch in north India: see below, chap. 9, n. 163. Haratara (Sanskrit haratala), yellow arsenic or orpiment, has a brilliant orange-yellow color which, like red arsenic or realgar (manahs'ila) lends itself to an identification with female passion and, more specifically, men strual blood. Mercury "swallows" sulfur in alchemical reactions; the question being asked here is why Ratansen does not allow himself to enjoy the sweetly perfumed body of PadmavatI: see the origin myth of sulfur (gandhaka), which, when churned out of the ocean of milk was declared "aromatic": above, n. 51. 83. Padmiivat [310-12 = 27.3-5] ' n S\armi, Jayasi Granthavali, pp. 476-81; and Dhar, Padumavati, p. 56. Cf. a description of such color changes in the laboratory, in Dash, Alchemy, pp. 141-42. As McGregor (Hindi Literature, p. 70) notes, Padma vatI is equated with Gorakhnath slightly later in this text (27.14). Thus, the con summation of love is also an allegory on a yogin's transformation through initi ation. 84. RA 1.28. The same source [11.104-7] describes the immediate and longterm effects of eating said mercury. 85. RHT 1.33: divyatanurvidheya haragaurlsrstisamyogat. 86. Vimalaprabha 2.119, translated in Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, p. 138. Menstrual blood both transmutes copper into gold and, when eaten, affords immortality, ac cording to MBhT5.27-43, especially 37-42. See also Schoterman, Yonitantra, p. 29. 87. MBhT 5.28. A number of tantric sources specifically recommend a nonvirgin, ideally a low-caste woman (especially a Candall or Dombl), for such practices: Schoterman, Yonitantra, pp. 18-21, 24-25, 31-32; and Bhattacharya, History, p. 136.
454
Notes to Chapter Seven 88. Sharma, note to RRS, p. 121. 89. BhP 7.114-15. Such herbs are to be gathered with devotion to Siva, and with the bijas (seeds, but also seed mantras) of Sakti, (pronounced) one by one. 90. RC 6.21. On the role of the outcaste Candall or Dombl woman in the wor ship of the female sexual organ, and the subsequent production of the power sub stance, the yonitattva, through sexual intercourse with her, see Schoterman, Yoni Tantra, pp. 24-25. Candali is also a term for a woman in the first day of her menses (ibid., p. 25), and for the female energy located in the abdomen (Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, 2:262-63. A. 15th c. Bengali commentary to the Buddhist Laghu Kalacakra Tantra states that that part of the female organ which resembles the beak of a bird is called "bird mouth." The canal which carries semen down from the bird mouth is called candali-when, instead of semen, it carries menstrual flow. Dombl is that canal which, during the menses, points upward. At the time of the discharge of semen, the same Dombi becomes Avadhuti: Shastri, Catalogue, vol. 2, pp. iv-v. 91. Sachau, Alberuni's India, vol. 1, pp. 189-92. See below, chap. 9, n. 178. 92. HYP 3.83-91; 99-103; Yoga Sastra of Dattatreya 299-312; Goraksa Paddhati, appendix to 1.82, pp. 50-55. Alternatively, the practitioner may use his partner's yonitattva for purposes of external ritual and worship: Schoterman, Yonitantra, p. 28. 93. On these terms, see above, chap. 5, n. 109, and n. 67 of the present chapter. The term sadbhdva is found in KJnN 21.10. 94. TA 29.126, 129, translated in Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 190-91. These multiple roles of the female consort and her sexual essence are discussed in Silburn, Kun dalini, pp. 189-92. Italics are my own. 95. Siva Samhita 4.1-5; HYP 3.100, 102. 96. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 192 (commentary to TA 29.128-29): "The process of breath and efficience going from theyogini's mouth to the siddha and vice-versa is precisely samputikarana .. . Prana and virya are so intimately mixed as to be trans formed into each other and to become one and the same. According to the tra dition, the adept is rejuvenated; white hair and wrinkles disappear." In alchemical parlance, elixir mercury is valipalita vinasana. 97. Robert Svoboda, Aghora, at the Left Hand of God (Albuquerque, N.M.: Broth erhood of Life, Inc., 1986), pp. 280-81, quoting his Aghori teacher Vimalananda. See ibid., pp. 279-90 for an expanded discussion of vajroli mudra. Here as well, "heavy" mercury is located at the summit of a hierarchy of fluids: water, milk, clari fied butter, honey, and mercury. 98. Vajra- and sabaja- may also likely refer to the mystic Buddhist traditions known as vajrayana and sahajayana. Oli may be a middle Indo-Aryan shortening
45S
Notes to Chapter Seven of -alaya ("abode, place of"), in which case this term would mean the "seal of the place of the penis." Another possible source of the -oli ending is -ovalli, which means, in a tantric context, a "current of doctrine": Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 81 and n. 233. 99. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part 5 (1983), pp. 270-74, who also discusses the Taoist cognate to this: huan ching, "making the Yellow River flow backwards." According to Dharmavir Bharati (Siddh Sahity, p. 325), the Naths bor rowed their theory and practice of the vajroli mudra from the Mahayana Buddhists. The practice is referred to in Gorakh BaniSabadi 141: bajari karri amari rasai amarl karamtam bal/bhog karamtarn je vyarnd rasai te goras ka gurubhai. Cf. Sabadi 142, below, chap. 8, n. 88. Jerzy Kosinski (The Hermit of 69th Street [New York: Zebra Books, 1991] p. 69 n. n 1) refers to this practice as "acclivity," a term not found in the Oxford English Dictionary. 100. bCudlengyiman ngagofBo dong, in Encyclopedia Tibetica, vol. 2, pp. 52223, 556, cited in Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, p. 82. 101. At least two secret Tibetan Buddhist tantric initiations involve these same elements: sexual intercourse (which is literal and not figurative here), the intermin gling of sexual fluids (the red drop of the Prajna-maiden's pudenda (padma) and the white drop of the master's vajra), the internal raising of these commingled fluids (described as nectar), and the bliss of the realization of Buddha consciousness. The texts of these initiations are translated, with commentary, by David Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors, 2 vols. (Boston: Shambhala, 1987), vol. 1, pp. 256-64. 102. This term is discussed in SSP 5.7; Akulavira Tantra [A] 43; Goraksa Paddhati 1.75; Kulananda Tantra 4, 58; and a host of other hathayogic and tantric sources. For discussions, see also Srivastav, "Gorakh Bant" Visesank, pp. 15, 238; idem, "Gor aksa" Visesank, pp. 45-46, 156-57; Dvivedi, Ndth Sampraddy, pp. 58-59, 72; Gonda, Medieval, p. 224; and Mallik, SSP, p. 21. 103. The red bindu is said to shine with the same ruddy brilliance as liquid sindura, mercuric oxide: Yogamartanda 61, in Mallik, SSP, p. 61; and Goraksa Sataka 73. This mixture of red and white fluids may have its origins in the combination of (reddish) soma and white milk in Vedic oblations, and a tantric parallel in the ritual consumption of the yonitattva together with wine: Schoterman, Yonitantra, p. 30. 104. Goraksa Paddhati 1.71-75 (= Goraksa Sataka 72-76 = Yogamartanda 61-64). Verse 64 reads: sukram candrena samyuktam rajah suryena sarnyutam/ dvayos samarasaikatvam yo janati sa yogavit: "Semen is conjoined with the moon, uterine blood is conjoined with the sun. He who knows samarasa to be the unity of the two, he is a knower of yoga." On the mahabindu, see Gorakh Bant, Sabadi 237, and
456 Notes to Chapter Seven p. 32 of the Gorakhnath Mandir edition of Gorakh Bani, which equates mahabindu with mahasfinya. See also Dhyanabindu Upanisad 87-88, in Varenne, Upanishads du yoga, p. m ; and Filliozat, "Taoi'sme et yoga," p. 66. 105. Personal communication from N. Sethu Raghnathan, Madurai, January 1985. The titles of a great number of the Tamil alchemical sources are composed of the name of the author followed by the number of verses in the treatise. Cf. HYP 3.100, with Brahmananda's commentary, on the notion that nada becomes bindu in a woman's body—whence the need for a female partner in erotic tantric rites. On bindu and nada, see above, chap. 3, n. 102. 106. Yoga, literally "union" is, in the mystic parlance of the Nath Siddhas, the union of sun and moon, fire and fluid, ovum and seed, that which is enjoyed (upabhogya) and that which enjoys (bhokta), and ultimately, the commingling of the prin ciples of creation and destruction: Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 235, 238-39. 107. Siva Samhita 3.54; Yogatattva Upanisad 74; RA 11.144; 12.251, 265; 18.28, 83, 163. The yogin, whose own body has been rendered golden or adamantine (Siv Goraks BavanI 38, in Goraksa Stavanjali, ed. Yogi Bhambhulnath [Haridwar: Goraksanath Mandir, n.d.], p. 20; Gorakh Bani Pad 13.1; 50.2) becomes polymorphously perverse at this point, capable of transforming base metals into gold (as does mercury), base and noble metals into human bodies, human bodies into met als, stones, animals, etc. The mythology of the Nath Siddhas is replete with such transformations, often effected by Gorakh. 108. Gorakh Bani, Sabadl 1.1. Kablr expresses a similar sentiment in doha 13.23 in Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali (Doha), p. 87: "He finds himself face to face with the Lord, and becomes a child (balak) again." For a differing interpretation, see Bharati, Siddh Sdhity, pp. 337-38. See above, n. 94, and chap. 10, sec. 2. 109. RC 15.13-15; RRS 1.85-88; AK i.53b—62a; Rasakautuka, ASL MSS no. 4203, fol. 4a.6-9; Sivakalpadruma of Sivanatha, ASL MSS no. 4349, fol. 2b. 1-6. 110. M. F. de Mely, "L'alchimie chez les chinois et l'alchimie grecque," Journal Asiatique, 96 serie 6 (Sept.-Oct. 1895), pp. 314-40, especially pp. 332-33. i n . Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), p. 337. 112. De Mely, "L'alchimie chez les chinois," p. 334. 113. Mababhdrata 3.110.1-3.113.25. 114. De Mely, "L'alchimie chez les chinois," p. 334. The Renaissance "Hunting of the Greene Lyon," as a metaphor for the quest for the alchemical elixir, may be of a similar origin: Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, The Foundations ofNewton s Alchemy: "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon" (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975). 115. This Jabirian account is said to be an elaboration of an Indian legend of Manimekhala, "the jewel engirdled one." Manimekhala's story is referred to in the Katbasaritsagara of Somadeva (Ocean, vol. 9, p. 51). The myth is discussed in Sylvain
457
Notes to Chapter Seven Levi, "Manimekhala, divinite de la mer," in Memorial Sylvain Levi (Paris: P. Hartmann, 1937), pp. 371-83. 116. Paul Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayyan: Contribution a rhistoire des ide'es scientifiques dans Tlslam (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986), pp. 90-93. Kraus identifies Sindiyyat with an island off the coast of the Sind, in southern Pakistan. He opines (p. 91, n. 4), however, that Suvarna-bhumi, the "Golden Land," generally identified with the "greater India" of southeast Asia, perhaps Burma, may be intended here. On this toponym, see Wink, Al-Hind, vol. 1, pp. 334-42. 117. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, pt. 4 (1980), pp. 330-425, espe cially pp. 339-355. 118. On Darada-desa, see above, n. 48. On Parada-desa, see Sircar, Studies, p. 33 and n. 4; p. 68 and n. 9; and p. 70. 119. On possible identifications of Bibl NanI with other mother goddesses, see William Crooke, "Hiriglaj," Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 6, p. 715. 120. A modern description of the Candrakupa is found in Sastri, Agneya Tirth Hinglaj, pp. 29-47. See esp. p. 45. The Life ofApollonius is a work of fiction which nonetheless contained numerous geographic and ethnographic details culled by Philostratus from ancient travel accounts. Philostratus localizes his "Well of Truth" somewhere in the Indus River region: Philostratus, Life ofApollonius, tr. C. P. Jones and edited, abridged, and introduced by G. W Bowersock (Harmondsworth: Pen guin, 1970), p. 75. See below, chap. 8, sec. 2b, for a discussion of other "lunar" toponyms. 121. On the rock-hewn images of the sun and moon, see Crooke, "Hiiiglaj," p. 45; Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 106 (reporting an account given by Charles Masson in 1844); an£ l Ctesias, "Indika," in Photios, Bibliotheca (468.13-19), ed. and tr. Rene Henry, 6 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1959), vol. 1, p. 136. 122. Jaan Puhvel, Comparative Religion (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), "Fire in Water," pp. 277-83, especially p. 279, on the Irish Nechtan's well. Cf. Georges Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 22-89, especially pp. 27-31. 123. pancabhutatmakah sutastistatyeva sadasiva. Cf. BhP 1.32-37. Sadasiva is, of course, a god who is represented iconographically with five heads: see above, chap. 2, nn. 64-66. Elsewhere, the south Indian tradition of Siddha medicine bases its practice of pancikarana ("the five practices," or simply "doing five"), the purifi cation of the elements used in its therapy, upon the assumption that Siva and Sakti are present in every element: Kardaswamy, Histoiy, p. 340. 124. Treloar, "Use of Mercury," p. 238. 125. On this, see David Gordon White, "Why Gurus Are Heavy," Numen 33 (1984), pp. 43-44 and notes.
458 Notes to Chapter Seven 126. The classic theoretical statement is Louis Dumont, Homo hierarchicus, le systeme des castes et ses implications (Paris: Gallimard, 1978), appendix 4, "Vers une theorie de la hiearchie," pp. 396-403. 127. Each of the five elements is quadrupled within this system: to each of the five tanmatras (subtle elements, senses) there corresponds a gross element (mahabhuta), a "grasping organ" {karmendriya) and a sensory organ (jnanendriya). On the generation of lower elements from higher in Samkhya, see B. N. Seal, "The Physicochemical Theories of the Ancient Hindus," appendix to Ray, History (1956), pp. 264-65. 128. Caraka Samhita 4.5.5. The same schema is echoed in the SSS (4.24) of the Western Transmission tradition: Schoterman, SSS p. 129. Cf. the slight variations suggested by Jean Filliozat, "Taoi'sme et yoga," p. 48. 129. Dhatu, "that which supports" (from the Sanskrit root dha, support, ground), is the Ayurvedic term for the constituent parts of the body and the al chemical term for the metals. In both cases, these are the constituent elements of their respective systems, without which the entire (biological or metallic) body would collapse and disintegrate. See above, nn. 11, 20. 130. Prior to the 12th c. alchemical synthesis, the term loha, which specifically means iron, was employed as the generic term for metal: personal communication from Damodar Joshi, Benares, September 1984. 131. RA 7.97-98. Cf. Chandogya Upanisad 4.17.7: "Just as one would mend gold with salt, silver with gold, tin with silver, lead with tin, iron with lead, wood with iron." Enumerations of the metals vary from one source to another, some adding such alloys as brass, bronze, bell metal, etc. to reach totals of as many as twelve (in AK 2.1.9) metals. See Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 493-96, for a discussion of the nomenclature of the metals in all the major alchemical texts. 132. Syamasundaracarya Vaisya, Rasdyan Sdr, 5th ed. (Benares: Syamasundar Rasayansala, 1971), vol. 1, p. 70. Although this is a modern work (the first edition appeared in 1914), its statement of the process of resorption (layakrama) respects the classic formulation. 133. In a general sense, this south Indian tradition makes greater use of the system of the five elements, in its formulations of the applications and powers of mercurial medicines, than do the northern traditions. Personal communication from N. Sethu Raghunathan, Madurai, India, January 1985. Cf. Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practices," in Bose, Concise History, p. 334. 134. HT, p. 176. Cf. Sat-cakra-nirupana 4-29, trans, with commentary in John Woodroffe, The Serpent Power, 9th ed. (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1971), pp330-87. 135. RHT 1.12: kasthausadhyo nage nagam varige varigamapi llyate sulbe / sul-
459 Notes to Chapter Seven bam tare taram kanake kanakan ca llyate sute. An identical passage is RRS 1.60. RA 7.97 makes the same statement in a more elliptical way: "that which precedes [is higher on the hierarchy] is imperishable [aksaya] with regard to that which is lower." The Mahdbharata (5.39.65) describes the hierarchy of the five metals in the follow ing terms: "Silver is the dross [mala] of gold; copper the dross of silver; tin the dross of copper; lead the dross of tin; and dross [mala: here, iron?] the dross of lead." Cf. Chandogya Upanisad 4.17.7 for a still earlier formulation. 136. Two modern empirical explanations for the hierarchy of the metals are offered in Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 494, 498: that which is higher on the hierarchy requires greater heat for its purification than that which is lower; that which is higher on the hierarchy loses less of its mass when heated than that which is lower. 137. RRS 1.30-37; AK 1.18-23. This is an idealized schematization: as noted, the term parada likely derives from the name of the country, located to the west or northwest of India, from which mercury was imported to India: see RC 15.14-15. Cf. above, chap. 3, n. 93, and n. 118 of the present chapter. 138. RPS 1.17-18; Rasakautuka (ASL MSS no. 4203), fol. 38.5-6; and Sivakalpadruma (ASL MSS no. 4349), fols. 6a.i2-6b.2. The five states or phases of mercury (avasthd) appear not to be arranged hierarchically: RA 10.17-18. 139. KCM (ASL MSS no. 3952), fol. 30D.3-4; RA 6.67-68. 140. The third and fourth members of the hierarchy appear to be reversed in the discussions of the gatis and vedha: air precedes fire in both cases, in opposition to the Samkhyan ordering of the five elements, in which fire is the third and air the fourth element on the pentadic hierarchy. 141. RA 10.13-15; RRS 1.82-83. 142. Mercury is identified with the soul (dtman) both here (RRS 1.83) and in RU 15.50. The fifth gati of mercury is called jiva-vat in AK 1.40. In the Caraka Samhitd's Ayurvedic analysis of semen, only the four lower elements are present (on this, see Sharma's notes to RRS 1.81-83, o n P- r 3 or "his edition); it is however united, at conception, with dkds'a, ether, which is omnipresent and static in the ovary: Caraka Samhita 4.2.4, cited in Dasgupta, History, vol. 2, pp. 302, 307. 143. RRS 1.83. The RA (10.15) stipulates that the fifth gati, the jlva-gati, of mercury is invisible, while the first four are visible. Sharma, in his notes to RRS 1.83 (p. 13), states that, due to its invisibility, the fifth gati of mercury is also called daivl-gati, its "divine motion." He suggests the use of such "Siddha mantras" as the aghora, and the adjunction of yogic practices to halt the loss of mercury through this gati, or to render it visible. 144. RA 1.41. Another term for mercury is vyoma-dhdrana, "maintaining mica / ether [in mental concentration]": Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "vyoman."
46.
Notes to Chapter Seven 145. RC 4.106-11; RRS 8.90-94. 146. RRS 8.95. 147. RA 5.28, 32-41. 148. These are the "M-words" or antisacraments of tantric practice, possibly subversions of the pancagavya, the five pure products of the cow that were the orthodox brahmin's mainstay: mdmsa, meat; matsya, fish; mudrd, parched grain; madbu, spiritous liquor; and maitbuna, sexual intercourse. 149. The five "nectars," here are bodily secretions used in secret tantric ceremo nies: blood, semen, urine, feces, and flesh: KJnN 11.5, 11. 150. These are the "stools" or "seats," pilgrimage sites of the Goddess. As many as 134 ptthas are enumerated in certain lists. Five are singled out, however, and are identified here with the five elements. Kamakhya (here called Kamarupa) is one of these: Schoterman, SSS, appendix 2, pp. 222-25. 151. On the five kulas, see Marie-Therese de Mallmann, "Divinit.es hindoues dans le tantrisme bouddhique" Arts Asiatiques 10 (1964), pp. 68, 72-74. On the five amndyas ("transmissions"), emanating out of the five faces of Siva, see Kuldrnava Tantra 3.7-10. 152. The more traditional number is nine: however, the Bengali Goraksa Vijaya and other traditions speak of the five original Naths. These are Adinath, the primal Nath, and four Naths who arose from his body parts; Gorakhnath, who arose from his head; Matsyendranath, who arose from his navel; Kanerinath, who arose from his ears; Jalandharanath, who arose from his bones; and Caurahginath, who arose from his limbs: Mukherji, Gopicandra Ndtaka, p. xxxvi. 153. These three groups of five are treated together in a work of the Nath Siddhas entitled Goras Ganes Gusti (in Srivastav, ed., "Gorakhbdni" Visesdnk, pp. 38890. All three groups are related, serially, to the five elements. 154. Dumont, Homo bierarchicus, pp. 104-5, 397- See above, n. 126. 155. Abhraka and gagana are the two more common terms; the RA (6.31) also mentions vyoma. The RC uses all four terms interchangeably in chapter 16, em ploying kha once, in 16.37. Kha-puspa, "cavity-" or "hole-flower," is a common term for menstrual blood in tantrism: Bhattacharya, History, pp. 132, 136. 156. The Rasakdmadhenu passage is reproduced without verse citation in Sharma's commentary to RRS 2.1. 157. Rasendra Bhdskara 3.42. Abbra connotes wetness in such Vedic passages as Atharva Veda 1.12.3 (cited in Dasgupta, History, vol. 2, p. 331, n. 2). 158. See above, n. 144. Vyoman is the "firmament" in Atharva Veda 8.18.13. The five akas'as are identified with the five vyomas in the SSP and are discussed by Kaviraj, Tdntrik Sddband, p. 401.
Notes to Chapter Seven 159. However, RRS 5.5 states that natural gold (prakrta-svama) originally arose from the rajoguna. See also Biardeau, Hindouisme, pp. 106,110. The pivotal, female, and creative role of ether/empty space is set forth in the Caraka Samhita (4.2.4) discussion of conception: see above, n. 142. 160. The association ofrajas, (heguna of activity, with the Goddess, is supported etymologically. Rajas at once means menstrual blood, pollen, redness, and passion, all terms with highly feminine connotations in India. 161. Abhinavagupta lends a pivotal role to the fifth element, which he calls dkdsa-s'akti, the "power of space." On this, he says that, unlike the powers of the four lower elements, "the power of space plays no role in sustaining the finite sub ject. For the power of space is inherent in the individual soul as the true subjectivity, at once empty of the objects and providing a place in which objects may be known. This is the Emissional Power in its lowest form" (commentary on Pardtrisikd Laghuvrtti 5-98, translated in Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, p. 131). See below, note 176, on the kanaikas. 162. The goose seems to be identified with the breaths even before the syllables of its name come to represent the sound of inbreathing and outbreathing them selves. The original notion would have been that the goose of the breath kept one alive so long as one of its feet remained tethered to the body: its flight, up and out of the body, is death. This is the implication of Aitareya Aranyaka 2.1.8 (citing Rg Veda 1.164.38), even if this text does not mention hamsa explicitly. 163. Silburn, KundalinI, p. 23. 164. Goraksa Sataka 64-70, especially 67. 165. RA 2.89; 11.151. Khecart is also referred to in the context of a thirty-twosyllable Kubjika mantra, in 3.9. A khecarichn lineage (kula) is named and its mantra discussed in 3.17-20 and 12.59. Certain herbs are also referred to as kbecari, be cause they produce the power of flight in mercury: 12.52-54. One of the uparasas, kasisa (ferrous sulfate) is called khecara in RC 11.1 and RHT 9.5. It is called khaga ("sky-going") in RA 7.56. Khecara is one of the eight "magical" siddbis listed (along with rasa-rasdyana) in the 3d—1 ith c. A.D. Sddbanamdld: Bhattacharya, Sddhanamald 2:lxxxv. 166. RHT 4.5; RC 16.4, 44, 52-55, 75. Clipping the wings of volatile mercury is the remedy for cdpalyadosa, the "flaw of instability." This is effected through niyamana ("regulation"), the seventh of the eighteen alchemical samskdras: Misra, Ayurvedlya, p. 195. 167. The play of correspondences is not perfect here, since evaporation can be identified with the element air, rather than ether or space. Both appear to be pres ent here. Hanisaga mercury {RA 10.14-15; 11.126-31; 12.68-70; RRS 1.81-83 and
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Notes to Chapter Seven pp. 13, 133) is related to the element air, referring as it does to mercury's tendency to evaporate, harnsaga, in the sunshine whose beams are called hamsapada in Atharva Veda 11.4.21—or into the wind as breath, also called harnsa in yoga. 168. On this, see Cirpatjf ki sabadi 23, in Mallik, SSP, p. 84: "bind the flying hamsa" (udaina harnsa lagai bandb). Cf. HYP 4.92 and BbP 5.148, 168-69. 169. Elsewhere, the Goraksa Paddhati (p. 60 of the Bombay edition, cited in Bharati, Siddh Sahity, p. 340), calls the ether the void (sunya) in which Siva (whose semen is mercury) dwells. 170. RC 15.4-12. 171. Siddhinandan Misra, who translated this text into Hindi, chooses to see in the plural use of the term dhatu a reference to the sexual fluids of both Siva and the Goddess (siv-parvati ke antim dhatu): Misra, RC, p. 289. Elsewhere (16.8), Somadeva calls mica (abhraka) and mercury (parada) the final dhatus of the Goddess and Siva. Here, these dhatus are "final" in the Ayurvedic sense of the term: as the sexual emissions of the two, they are the final distillates of divine processes of digestion. 172. This is the Vedic myth of Indra's theft of Soma, the divine draft of immor tality. In the Rg Veda (4.26-27), it is Indra who, mounted on an eagle or falcon (syena), steals the soma (later identified with lunar nectar and semen) from the atmo spheric Gandharvas. In Brahmanic myth (Taittiriya Samhita 6.1.6; Satapatha Brahmana 3.6.6.2), the rivalry is between a serpent named Kadru and a falcon named Suparnl. This develops, in later epic myth, into the baroque account of the bird Garuda's "theft" of the soma from the serpents, or from Indra and the gods: Ramayana 3.35; Mahabharata 1.20.1-1.30.25. 173. For the Babylonian myth of Etana and the Zu bird, as well as a wide array of Indian and Indo-European parallels to this mythic theme, see David M. Knipe, "The Heroic Theft: Myths from Rgveda IV and the Ancient Near East," History of Religions 6:4 (May 1967), pp. 328-60. Cf. Jarich G. Oosten, The War of the Gods: The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), pp. 69-71. 174. Mahabharata 1.20.1-1.30.25. 175. RRS 1.80; AK 1.35-37; RC T 5- 2 4 -2 5> 43 - 49; BbP 3.22. Misra (Ayurvedlya, p. 197) describes this purification in terms of a snake shedding its skin. It is note worthy that in Ayurvedic embryology, heating in the uterus generates seven layers (kalas) of skin and the seven dhatus around the blood and semen that were originally present at conception: Dasgupta, History, vol. 2, pp. 312, 317. 176. On the kancukas in Saiva Siddhanta thought, see Gonda, Medieval, p. 186; on the Vidyesvaras, see Rao, Elements, vol. 2, part 2, p. 397, and above, chap. 6, n. 56. 177. TA 13.103-4, translated in Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, p. 139. Cf. Para-
4rt?
Notes to Chapter Seven trtsika Laghuvrtti 5-98, translated ibid., p. 131. Cf. Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 219, and Srivastav, ed., "Goraksa" Vtsesank, p. 272, for Nath Siddha interpretations. 178. BhP 2.50-73: tatradau tu rasah sutah sivadehadvinirgatah/ tato 'nyattu ghanam khyatamumayonisamudbhavam/ sitam pltam tatha raktam krsnan caiva tu varnatah // vajrakhyan caiva mandukam dvividham tu prakirtitam. 179. For ahiraja, see RA 13.370. One type of mica is called naga, "serpent," because of the hissing sounds it makes when heated: RC 10.6. 180. The alchemical sources refer repeatedly to lead and tin zsputa, "smelly," a fact that may have inspired this mythic representation of them as mala, dross. In the gradual transformation of the human body into an alchemical body, the first of an eight-stage process is called "piercing" or "transmuting" the skin (tvacavedha), by which the body is transmuted into lead and tin (pannaga): RA 18.150. 181. Sesa (along with his brothers Ananta, Vasuki and Taksaka) is the Lord of Serpents in Hindu mythology. Somadeva's evocation of the Lord of Serpents who drinks the divine semen that has fallen from the mouth of Agni would thus refer to this same figure. On Sesa as "remains," see Charles Malamoud, "Observations sur la notion de 'reste' dans le brahmanisme," in Cuire le monde, pp. 28-29. 182. Siva's name here is to be identified with the fire of yoga (yogagni) that destroys the fire of time (kalagni) in the microcosm. The universal resorption is a reabsorption of both matter and time: time which generally cooks all creatures is itself cooked by the dissolution. Time yields to eternity, until the universe is reemitted by the great yogin. The fire of Siva's yoga is also greater than the fire of desire (kamagni), as illustrated in the myth of his incineration of Kama, the Hindu Eros, with fire from his third, yogic, eye. 183. Whence the final verse of the RA (18.228), which states that the perfected Siddha dwells eternally in the highest level of the cosmic egg—sometimes known as Siddha-loka—even when all living beings have been annihilated in the terrible flood (of the end of the world). 184. In later sources, particularly Saiva Puranas and Tantras, it is Siva who is the great yogin, a distinction he has retained down to the present day in India. In this light, the statement that mercury is the exudation or sweat of the sleeping (i.e., yogically withdrawn) Siva, is a telling one: RA 1.36. See above, chap. 2, sec. 5. 185. Puranic cosmogony is in fact an appropriation, run in reverse, of the stages of yogic withdrawal: Asian Mythologies, s.v. "Puranic Cosmogony." 186. Ibid., and Biardeau, Hindouisme, pp. 121-22. A translation of the Visnu Purana (6.3.14-41; 6.4.1-10) treatment of cosmic dissolution is in Dimmitt and Van Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology, pp. 41-43. 187. Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature ofReligion (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1959), pp. 54-55; Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple,
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Notes to Chapter Eight 2 vols. (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1946; reprint Benares: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976), vol. 1, p. 62, n. 105. 188. Filliozat, Doctrine classique, p. 19. Nagarjuna is called the son of Vasuki in a Nath source: NSC, p. 226. A Rajput royal lineage calls itself the nagavamsi, "serpent lineage," claiming descent from one or another of the great serpents of Hindu myth: Ruben, Eisemchmiede, p. n o . 189. See below, chap. 9, n. 102. 190. Kaviraj, Bharatiy, vol. 1, p. 311; Silburn, Kundalini, p. 42, citing Abhinavagupta, Tantraloka-viveka 22. Cf. Svetasvatara Upanisad 1.13, in which meditation on the Om causes the subtle mark (linga) of the divine within all humans to manifest itself. Chapter Eight 1. Toni Schmidt, "Fiinfundachtzig Mahasiddhas," Ethnos 2-3 (1955), p. 120; Rolf Stein, "Jardins en miniature," p. 54. A seemingly identical image appears in the context of the pilgrimage to the shrine of Hinglaj Devi, in eastern Baluchistan. This is a lingam-yoni, the image of the sexual union of Siva and the Goddess, which is branded on the upper right forearm of Nath Siddhas travelling to the site. The image, reproduced by Briggs (Gorakhnath, p. 110), is of a scrolled letter U in the hollow of which are nested two concentric circles. I.HYPT,.I.
3. RHT 1.7; MBhT 3.12-14; SSP 3.5; Goraksa Paddhati 1.60; BhP 9.117-19. Cf. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraddy, pp. 187-88; Misra, Ayurvedtya, p. 28; Kaviraj, Bharatiy, vol. 1, pp. 555-56; Srivastav, "Goraksa" Vis'esank, p. 132; idem, "Gorakh Bani" Vis' esank, p. 332; NSC, p. 131. 4. Todala Tatitra 9.140-15^ prthvlcakrasya madhye tu svayambhulirigamadbhutam/ sarddhatrivalayakarakundalya vestitam sada/ lirigacchidram svavaktrena kundalyacchadya samsthita. Cf. 9.21. Alternatively, her mouth is said to cover the brahmadvara, the "door of brahman," which is the opening to the lower end of the siisumna nadi: Goraksa Paddhati 1.17-19; Yoga Martanda 36. Cf. NSC, p. 131, which states that she sleeps with her mouth closed around the "western" linga. 5. Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 22-23. This discussion, of the place of the kundalini in the hathayogic system of the Nath Siddhas, differs significantly from Silburn's descriptions (ibid., pp. 19-24, 63-69) of the two kundalinis, (the adhah- and urdbvakundalinis) or the three aspects of the kundalini (sakti-, prana-, and para-kundalinis) in the Trika Kaula system of Abhinavagupta and others. 6. Goraksa Paddhati 1.47-56; Yoga Martanda 36-40. The editor of the Goraksa Paddhati, citing "other sources," reproduces the following verse (numbered 2) on p. 28: "in between the ida and pingala is the child widow, the kundalinir
4«5 Notes to Chapter Eight 7. This is the particular perspective of the Nath Siddhas who, anti-Sakta to the extreme, deny whenever possible any constructive role to the feminine. This is in marked contrast to the Trika system, for which the kundalini is the dynamic manifestation of Siva in the universal macrocosm as well as the human microcosm: Silburn, Kimdalini, p. 24. Gorakhnath compares women to tigresses and succubi: see below, n. 92. 8. Biardeau, Hindoui'sme, p. 167. Bhogavati is the name of the city or a sacred tirtha of the serpent race, in the Hindu epics: Monier-Williams, s.v. "[i]bhoga," citing the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Harivams'a. 9. Padoux, Vac, pp. 81-83. Cf. Sanderson, "Mandala and Agamic Identity," pp. 178, 185; Brooks, Secret, p. i n ; Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 19-24, 52-53, 64-66. 10. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 27, 42, citing Ksemaraja's commentary on Sivasutra 2.3. Cf. Kaviraj, Bharatiy, 1:309. 11. On the bhukti/mukti dyad see Brooks, Secret, pp. 91, 105. Rasik Vihari Joshi ("Notes on Guru, Dlksa and Mantra," Ethnos 37 [1972], pp. 106-7) discusses moksa and bhoga as two forms of tantric initiation. But see Sanderson's ("Saivism," pp. 667-68) important nuanced discussion of the mutual exclusivity of moksa and bhoga in early tantrism. Moksa was the goal of "liberation-seeking" celibate ascetics, while bhoga, supernatural experience generally gained through sexual union, was the goal of such "power-seeking" tantric movements as the Mantramarga. 12. See MBhT 14.3-10, on divya-, virya-, and pasu-bhoga, also in relation to the kundalini. 13. MBhT }.1-16; 14.13-14; and Bharati, Tantric Tradition, pp. 252, 260. 14. HYP 1.27; 3.11; 3.61-69. 15. Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 15, 27, 52. 16. See Silburn (Kundalini, pp. 27, 52) for Abhinavagupta's (TA 3.171) play on the word visja]: when she sleeps, the kutidalini holds the poison that destroys human vitality; when she awakens, this poison transforms itself into all-pervading (vis) power. 17. This is the origin myth of poison, in RRS 29.1-n. 18. It is this mythic feat and the quest to, once again, become a "second Siva," that appears to be the raison d'etre of the so-called "Poison Tantras" (visatantras), of which the Yogaratnavali revealed by Srikantha Siva (ASL MSS no. 4184) is an ex ample. 19. He is further identified with Vajrabhairava. This god's consort is Ekajata: see Beyer, lard pp. 42-43, 54; and above, chap. 3, nn. 89-90. 20. Spanda Kdrika 3.16, trans, in Harvey Alper, "The Cosmos as Siva's Language-Game," in idem, Mantra (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), p. 280. 21. TA 3.171.
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22. Guga Chauhan or Guga Plr, whom the Nath Siddhas claim to have been one of their number, is renowned for his power over serpents: Rose, pp. 395, 409. Nepali legend maintains that Gorakhnath held back the "great serpents" of the rains in Nepal for some twelve years, a reference that at once harks back to Vedic myths of Indra taming the rain serpent Vrtra and to Gorakh's yogic control of the kundalini.
the Goddess in a raised pavilion amidst the Ocean of Milk: Sen, History, p. 44. Another Nath legend explains Matsyendra's piscine origins. A king named Udhodhar is cremated. His navel will not burn and is cast into a river, where a fish de vours it to give birth to Matsyendra: Rose, Glossary, p. 393; Himavatkhanda (of the Skanda Purana), p. 73 (appendices); and Narada Purana, 2.69.6, cited in NSC, p. 22.
23. BhP 9.1 i8b-i 19a. On the mythic theme, of a disciple becoming his guru's teacher and the guru becoming his disciple's pupil, in its relationship to the ideol ogy of brahmanic sacrifice, according to which that which precedes (e.g. a prior sacrifice) is necessary to that which follows (e.g. a present sacrifice, lit from the embers of the prior sacrifice); but also that that which precedes can only persist through that which follows (the prior sacrifice is reborn through the present sacri fice), see below, ch. 9, n. 104. 24. According to the KJnN (22.10), the Yoginl-Kaula doctrines were found "in every house in Kamarupa." Three Padas (2, 43, and 49) of the Gorakh Bani take the form of teachings made to his guru after his rescue from the Kingdom of Women: Srivastav, "Gorakh Bant" Vtsesank, p. 327. So too, in the Bengali Mm Cetan-Goraksa Vijay cycle, it is made clear that the yoginls of this mystic doctrine and the women of the Plantain Forest were one and the same. Indeed, the origin of the "house holder Naths" is also traced back to these yoginls, who inveigled celibate yogins into moving in with them: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 22, 56. 25. The opening lines of the 17th c. Bengali work Mm Cetan are the Goddess's question to Siva: "Why is it, my Lord, that thou art immortal and mortal am I? Advise me the truth, O Lord, so that I also may be immortal for ages" (turhhl kene tara gosanl arhhi kene mari/ hena tattva kaha dev joge joge tari). In answer to her question, Siva expounds on hatha yoga, in the monologue that Matsyendra over hears: Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 228. 26. Matsyendra's name, like that of Nagarjuna, cannot be attached to a single historical figure. It is rather to be seen as an initiatory title, given to tantric prac titioners who had reached a certain advanced level of mastery: Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 133. 27. Matsyendra is described as dwelling in the belly of the fish in the c. A.D. I 290 Jhanesvari (18.1729-35) of the Marathi saint Jfianesvara: Avedyanath jl Maharaj, "MahayogI Guru Gorakhnath evam unkl Tapasthall," in Baba Cunninathji, ed. TanPrakas (Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1981), p. 186. The same description is given in another Marathi source, the 13th c. YSA. A similar account is found in the Skanda Purana (6.263.33-61). The Goraksa Vijay and Min Cetan call him Mlnanath and say he took the form of a fish to eavesdrop on Siva, who related his secret teachings to
28. Jayaratha, in his commentary to TA 1.6 (vol. 2, p. 24), quotes a source that identifies the Siddha Mlna with Macchanda, in this episode. The relationship be tween Goraksanatha (7) and his guru Mlnanatha (6) in HYP 1.5 is symmetrical to that obtaining between the figures Goraksa-pa (9) and Mlna-pa (8) in the Tibetan Grub thob. This squares, moreover, with the statement made by Goraksa in the second verse of his earliest work, the Goraksas'ataka, that his guru was Mlnanatha. It is a later conflation that identifies Matsyendra (the second Siddha, listed after Adinatha, in the HYP list) or Lul-pa (the first Siddha of the Grub thob list) with Mlna. The historical Goraksa or Gorakhnath was an early 13th c. figure, whereas Matsyendra, his purported guru, could not have lived later than the 10th c; it is Mlna who was Gorakh's guru. 29. Matsyendra calls himself matsyaghna in KJnN 16.37, where he says he is from the kaivartta fisher caste (see below, n. 108). He calls himself macbli ghana, "Killer of Fishes," and Machandar Nath, a vernacularization of his Sanskrit name, in a song entitled Matsyendranathjt ka pad, in Mallik, SSP, p. 76. He is also known as Macchaghnapada, Macchendrapada, Matsyendrapada, Mlnapada, Mlnanatha, Macchendra, Macchendapada, and Macchindranathapada: Bagchi, KJnN, p. 6; and Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 163 (n. 23 to p. 62). On Matsyendra's ambiguous relation ship to Mlna in Nepal, see Locke, Karunamaya, p. 427. 30. There are actually two thefts and two recoveries of these scriptures at Candradvlpa, and it is only on the second occasion that Siva-Bhairava becomes Matsy endra: KJnN 16.23-36, 52; 22.10-12. The many variants of this legend are re viewed in Bagchi's introduction (pp. 6-32) to the KJnN. 31. KJnN 16.21: yadavataritam jnanam kamarupe tvaya maya ("[When] the [Kaula] gnosis was brought down at Kamarupa by you [and] by me"). Cf. 16.26a. However, 22.10b and i2ab state that "this teaching [is found] in the household of every yogini in Kamarupa . . . This great teaching was brought down at Candradvipa. That [teaching] whose abode was the belly of afish{mahamatsyodarasthitih) is sung at Kamakhya." 32. Kamarupa is generally identified with the important pltha of the Goddess at Kamakhya (Gauhati district, Assam). It is also a site within the subtle body, located at the center of a downturned yoni, which is itself identified with the sexual organ of the tantric consort, the yogini. See below, nn. 89-90.
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33. The Gntb thob, a Tibetan translation of Abhayadatta's 1 ith-i2th c. Catnras'itisiddha Pravrtti ("Acts of the Eighty-four Siddhas"), is found in vol. 86, part 1 of the Tanjur: see above, chapter 3, nn. 139-40. 34. Locke, Kamnamaya, pp. 282, 297-300, 433 n. 80. 35. Bagchi, KJiiN, p. 22. The color of the image is noted in the earliest datable manuscript (1 ith c.) in which it is mentioned: Locke, Karunamaya, p. 300. 36. Marie-Therese de Mallmann, "Divinites hindoues dans le tantrisme bouddhique," Arts Asiatiques 10:1 (1964), p. 71, referring to Archive Photograph no. 1623416/4, cliche no. 53.24, of the Musee Guimet. The depiction of Matsyendra emerging from the mouth of a fish can be cause for confusion, particularly in west ern India where Dariyanath (also known as Jhullelal, Khwaja Khizr, Amarlal, Zinda Plr, etc., according to region) the "lord of the current," is the god of the In dus River: Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 65. In Pushkar, where there is a temple to this deity and a temple to the major Nath Siddhas, a Nath custodian of the latter stated that "Matsyendra was the same as Jhullelal": personal communication from Dominique-Sila Khan, Pushkar, India, April 1993.
of tanks before emptying into the Varana. It was only in exceptionally heavy flood ing that the volume of water flowing in the Ganges would back up into its Varana tributary, and in turn into the Matsyodarl channel, reversing its more common northward flow. A small tank, all that remains of the Matsyodarl Lake of old, is today called Macchodarl: Eck, Banaras, pp. 116-18. Following James Prinsep's 1822 map of Benares (which she reproduces schematically on p. 47), Eck maintains that the "reversed" southward current of the Ganges-Matsyodari emptied into the Ganges proper near Benia Talab (the "Confluence Pool"), slightly to the north of Dasasvamedh Ghat. While such may have been the case in the early 19th century, the Puranic sources indicate that this occurred a mile further to the south, via the Asi River. A string of lesser lakes and ponds, located by Prinsep between the 19thcentury outlet and the Asi River, could well have served to channel the Matsyodarl down to the Asi in earlier centuries.
37. Chattopadhyaya, TaranathasHistory, p. 153 n. 28, and p. 178 n. 11; Bagchi, KJnN, pp. 22-23; Mallik, SSP, p. 15; and V. W. Karambelkar, "Matsyendranath and His Yogini Cult," Indian Historical Quarterly 31 (1955), p. 362. 38. TA 5.570-583, translated in Muller-Ortega, Triadic Heart, p. 123 (italics my own). Muller-Ortega translates matsyodaradas'd as "the condition of the belly of the fish." The term matsyodarasthitih, found in KJnN 22.12, has the same sense. 39. Amaraugha Prabodha 10: bibhranah pavanam hathanniyamitam graso 'sti minodare / kaivalyo bhagavanvimucya sahasa yavannacetatyasau. This text is found in Mallik, SSP, p. 49. Gorakh claims to be quoting a text entitled the Samputa. These words, put in the mouth of Siva and addressed to Parvati and Mlnanatha, appear to constitute the beginning of the teachings offered on the shore of Candradvipa. I am grateful to John Roberts for his aid in translating this passage. 40. Diana Eck, Banaras: City of Light (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 118. 41. Skanda Parana 2.2.12.21-40, cited in Eck, Banaras, p. 94. 42. Rudraydmala Tantra 27.45, which further identifies the three rivers with puraka, recaka, and kumbhaka; and moon, sun, and fire. It further mentions the kundalint (as kundalf), as well as the six cakras, which it associates with six Sivas, six Saktis, and six "shafts" (sats'ara): 27.42-56. Cf. Cauranglnath, "Pran SarikalT," verse 80, in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhomi, p. 23. On the geographical disappearance of the Sarasvati River, see Kalydn SaktiAnk, p. 651, which also mentions that a "SarasvatI Gariga" exists near Kedarnath, in the Himalayas (ibid., p. 671): see below, n. 153. 43. In a "normal" monsoon, the Matsyodarl would flood northward into a series
44. Siva Samhitd 5.100, 104, 109. Cf. Eck, Banaras, p. 26. 45. A Hindu commonplace identifies Benares with the two-petaled ajna cakra which, located at a point behind the bridge of the nose, is the final point of conver gence of the ida and pingala channels. 46. Linga Purana, Kapilesvara Mahatmya, Omkaranirnaya, and Guhyayatanavarnanam, chap. 9 (reproduced in the 12 th c. Ktyyakalpatani of Bhatta Laksmidhara (vol. 8, Tirthavivecanakanda, ed. K. V. Rangaswamy Aiyangar [Baroda: Oriental In stitute, 1942]), pp. 34-35- Lolarka Kund lies near the mouth of the Asi River, near the southern edge of Benares: Eck, Banaras, pp. 177—78. Lolarka's solar associations make the southern Asi River the obvious macrocosmic homologue of the solar pingala nddi. This somewhat skews the hathayogic symmetry in another way, however: ideally, the Ganges ought to flow backwards, northwards, and upwards from the sun (Asi) towards the moon (Varana); however, since the Ganges' normal flow is northeasterly at Benares, its backward-flowing stream must flow in a southwesterly and "downward" direction, from moon to sun. What is essential here is that matsyodari-yoga is identified with the Ganges running against its normal flow. 47. Krtyakalpataru, Tirthavivecanakanda, p. 35. Visuvam also means "at the equi nox": the flooding that would have precipitated the appearance of this stream could only have occurred during the summer monsoon: it is therefore possible that mats yodarlyoga fell on the autumnal equinox, at the culmination of the monsoon season. The Dars'ana Upanisad (4.430-443) identifies the two "equinoxes" with the concen tration of the life force/yogic breaths in the mulddhdra (spring) and the cranisl vault (autumn), respectively (in Sastri, ed., Yoga Upanisads). Once again, the latter "equi nox" would correspond to a generalized upward flow of the life force through the medial channel. 48. Krtyakalpataru, Tirthavivecanakanda, p. 59.
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49. Quoted from the KasI Khanda of the Skanda Purdna by Mitramisra, "Tlrtha Prakasa," in Viramitrodaya, p. 240 (cited in Krtyakalpataru, Tirthavivecanakanda, p. lxxviii). Cf. Narayana Bhatta's (ca. 1580) Tristhalisetu (p. 140, cited in Kubernath Sukul, Varanasi Down the Ages [Bhargava Bhushan Press, 1974], p. 200): "The Matsyodaii tirtha is indeed twofold because it is [both] there in its own place [the Matsyodari Lake] and outside of it, due to its channel that runs around [Benares]. It is most preeminent when, during the rainy season, the water of the Ganges, whose course is swollen during the rainy season, flows in a reverse direction via the mouth of that channel."
59. Eck, Bandras, p. 117. 60. Bagchi identifies Moon Island with the Chinese "double-mountain" known as K'un-lun, which is itself located within the Taoist subtle body ("The Island of K'un-Lun and Candradvipa," in Bharata-Kaumudt: Studies in Indology in Honor of Dr. Radha KumudMookerji, 2 vols. [Allahabad: Indian Press, 1945, 1947], vol. 1, pp. 47-55). Cf. idem, KJnN, pp. 29-32. Dasgupta {Obscure, p. 384) locates it on the coastline of the Bakerganj district of Bangladesh. S. M. Ali (The Geography of the Puranas, 2d ed. [New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1966, 1973], pp. 77-78 [citing Vdyu Purdna 45.51-58], 86-87, and fig. 8) locates it to the west of Lake Baikal in central Asia. 61. On the Candragiri toponym in the Kathmandu Valley, see above, chap. 4, n.49. 62. KJnN 16.33-35. 63. Chapter colophons to the KJnN call it the revelation of the "Great Yoginlkaula, brought down to earth by Matsyendrapada at Moon Island." The same is also stated in textu in KJnN 22.11. 64. KJnN 5.6, 12. 65. KJnN 17.23a; 20.1 ia. For the western linga in the head, see Gorakh Bdni, SabadI 187a, and the Raja Rani Sambdd of Goplcand, v. 105 (in Dvivedi, Ndth Siddhom, p. 9). On the "microcosmic west," see also Gorakh Bdni, Sabadls 41 and 267. 66. KM (London, Wellcome MSS g5or) fol. 48.5-7. 67. See above, chap. 3, n. 137. 68. Schoterman, SSS, pp. 36-39. A manuscript of this work, in Newari script, is dated to A.D. 1197 by Shastri (Catalogue, i:lxiv, 111-12) and to A.D. 1395 by Bag chi (KJnN, p. 67). 69. Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 68-69. This squares with Baul tradition, which iden tifies the fish (above, n. 58) with the moon: "My unknown moon moves through the water in the form of a fish." (McDaniel, Madness, p. 184). 70. Amaraughas'dsana, p. 10. 71. If, in the subtle physiology of the cranial vault, there exists a correspond ing eastern mountain to the western Candraparvata of the KM (see above, note 66), then the three mountains, taken together, represent the so-called trikuta, the "triple-peaked" configuration located in the same region, which is also identified with the three phonemes of the syllable Om (on this, see Silburn, Kundalini, p. 132). This would further correspond to the sacred geography of the city of Benares, which is built upon three hills, the which are identified with the three tips of Siva's trident, called the trisulabhumi in the geography of the subde body (ibid., p. 58). 72. On the lower western linga, see Goraksa Sataka 19. Cf. SSP 2.2, which states
50. Also called the brahma-mdrga, the "path of brahman," which is an echo of the Linga Purdna (in Krtyakalpataru, p. 59) reference to matsyodari as the fluvial [form] of the brahman-syllable. Gorakhnath refers to the susumnd as the "subterra nean Ganges": Gorakh Bdni SabadI 2. 51. On the commonplace identification of kumhhaka with the susumnd and the Sarasvati River, see Rudraydmala Tantra 27.43-45. A cryptic passage from the third chapter of Durjayacandra's Amitapada commentary on the Buddhist Catuspithatantra is adduced by Tucci to explain Jayaratha's gloss—in which he gives maccha as a synonym for pds'a—on Abhinavagupta's reference to Macchanda in TA 1.7. The Buddhist commentary gives the compound makara-minaka: Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," p. 134. I maintain that this compound is a reference to the two riv erine goddesses, the Gaiiga and Yamuna, whose marine vehicles are, precisely, the makara and mina; and that here too, this pair symbolizes the two peripheral chan nels of the subtle body, which must be emptied before the susumnd can be filled. 52. Kumhhaka is compared, in Brahmananda's commentary on HKP4.27, to the binding of mercury. 53. HYP 2.7-9, 35. The kundalini doubles as the susumnd nddi and is also called the "infant widow" in HYP 3.109-10. A Matsyodaratantra, of which the chief subject is the the subtle body of hatha yoga, would appear to take its name from the prac tices we have been describing: HTSL, p. 102. 54. Tristhalisetu, p. 168, cited in Eck, Bandras, p. 119. 55. Goraksa Sataka, v. 2. This mention of Mlnanath is found in all recensions of this work. Cf. the ordering of Matsyendra, Mina, and Gorakh in the Grub thob and HYP Siddha lists. See above, n. 28. 56. See above, chap. 5, nn. 83-92. 57. See above, chap. 5, nn. 93-96. 58. McDaniel, Madness, pp. 182-85. The opposition between minaka (fish) and makara (crocodile) in Durjayacandra's Amitapada (see above, n. 51) may also refer to this body of sexual practice.
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that the kundalini sleeps with her mouth over the pascima-linga, located in the sec ond cakra, the svadhisthana. It is out of this vortex that seed is emitted in ejacula tion: Srivastav, "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 131. 73. E. Obermiller, ed. and tr., History of Buddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston, 2 vols. (Heidelberg: Harrassowitz, 1931-32), vol. 2, "The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet," p. 120 (= fol 109a of Bu-ston's text). Obermiller gives the tran scription "Badaha" for the name of this island, a name which makes no sense. The Natha-abhyudaya-tantra cited by Bu-ston is called the Maha-kala-tantra-raja, in the Kanjur. A microfilm (reel E-1358/7) of a manuscript, in Newari characters, of this work, held in the Nepal National Archives, gives the reading badavam (fol. 55b, line 5). It is with this reading that I emend Obermiller's translation. 74. Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 1:22 6-27, citing Tanjur 67, p. 34. The "histori cal" Darika-pa would have lived in Bengal during the 10th c. reigns of Amrapala, Hastipala, and Ksantipala: Chattopadhyaya, Taranathas History, pp. 178, 311. 75. See O'Flaherty, Siva, pp. 286-92, citingMahabhdrata 6.8.26; Bhagavata Purana 4.30.45, for the mythology of the submarine fire and the submarine mare. Cf. TA 8.98, which locates Vadava to the south ofJambudvlpa, between two mountains, named Cakra and Mainaka. The southern sea in which the Indian submarine mare/ fire is found parallels the Scandinavian Muspellsheimr, the fire world in the South ern Hemisphere whose raging will be the end of the world: Puhvel, Comparative Mythology, p. 219. This is an alloform of the myth of the birth of Skanda and the origin of mercury: see above, chap. 7, sec. 3. 76. A goddess named Kundali, who appears to be associated with the left side of the body (vdmdkhyd) is mentioned in KJnN 17.23 and 20.11. 77. Siddha Siddhanta Samgraha 3.5, cited in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 187-88; Goraksa Paddhati 1.60; BhP 9.117-19; Gorakh Bdni, p. 332. Cf. MBhT 3.12-14.
78. WKP4.17. Cf. //IT4.108: "the yogin in samadhi is not consumed by time." 79. KJnN i.ib-y. kdlagnirudrasamjna tu nakhagrenityasamsthitam/yada prajvalate urddham sa?hharantu tada bhavet/ badavamukhamahattvanca patale sahasamsthitah. "That which is known as the Destroyer of the Fire of Time is forever located at the tip[s] of the toenail[s]. It is when it flares upwards that the universal retraction occurs. On the universal level [?nahattvam] this is the mouth of the submarine mare, which is located in the underworld [patale]? See also Bagchi's commentary, p. 43. A late paper manuscript of the Goraksasahasranamastotra found by Bagchi in the Nepal National Archives calls the land of Gorakhnath's birth "Badava": Bagchi, KJnN, p. 64. 80. Thus a parallel passage from the ca. 12th c. Vtnasikha Tantra (w. 7ob~7iab):
nirodhe kumbhakah proktah pranayamam praklrtitam/ dhyatva kalaffnibTjarn tu yugantanalasaprabham/ nyaset padatale mantri jvalamalakulam mahat. 81. See above, n. 49. 82. Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 28; Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, vol. 1, pp. 555-56. 83. ulatigangsamudrahisokhai: in Kablr Granthdvall, ed. Shyam Sundar D;'s (Be nares: Kashi Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1954), p. 141. Cf. a verse from another Kablr anthology, Sant Kablr, ed. Ramkumar Varma (Allahabad: 1947), p. 20: ulati gang jamun milavu/' binu jal sangam man mahim nhavu. See also Gorakh Bani Sabadi 55, 90, 115.
84. See above, n. 13. On the "five nectars" of early Buddhist tantra, see Gubysamaja Tantra (p. 26 of Bhattacharya's 1931 edition), and KJnN 11.15-1,5 85. Kalyan Sakti Ank, p. 640. 86. Sharma's commentary to RRS, pp. 39, 184-85; Misra, Ayurvediya p- I7°S Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas, p. 88. 87. Dyczkowski, Canon, pp. 63-64; Schoterman, SSS, p. 73. 88. Gorakh Bant, Sabadl 142: bhag musl byand, agani musi para; j 0 rasai so guru hamara. This is a continuation of Sabadl 141, which is a discussion of vairol' a n ^ amaroli mudras: bajarl karamtam amari rasai amari karamtam bal / bhog karaipwm je vyand rasai te goras ka gurubhai. 89. In the more abstract schemata of yoniptija, the tantric worship of the female sexual organ, the yoni is represented as a downturned triangle (Silburn Kunchlini, p. 43), at the heart of which is, once again, Kamarupa, the abode of the goddess Kamakhya, who is identified with the kundalini and with feminine materiality (prakrti) in the form of menstrual flux (pusparupini): Schoterman, Vonitantra P- 2 4; Bharati, Tantric Tradition, pp. 259-60; Bhattacharya, History, p. 133; anc ) Dyczkow ski, "Kundalini," p. 7, n. 13. See above, chap. 7, n. 67. 90. In Assam, specifically at Kamakhya, whence he is said to have brought it to Nepal: Karambelkar, "Matsyendranath," p. 365. Cf. KJnN 16.46-49; and JaV ara " tha's commentary to TA 1.6. (vol. 1, p. 24). As their names indicate, KamakhyS an( ^ Kamarupa are locations identified with eroticism. One account of Matsvend ras birth has him born the son of Parvati at Kamakhya: Narada Purana, Uttara Kh a n da 69.6, cited in NSC, p. 50. 91. When Matsyendra (Macchanda) is taken to be the founder of Kaulism xt ' s his six sons who are noncelibate (adhoretas) who are singled out as qualified to be revealers of the Kaula cult: Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 681. According to the Cartdradityaparamagama (cited in Bandhopadhyay, Natha Cult, p. 48), Yoganatha (an in carnation of Siva) married a maiden named Surati, who was a manifestation or" Sakti. They had sixteen sons, beginning with Adinatha. From them six house-
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holding (i.e., noncelibate) sons were born: Adinatha, Minanatha, Satyanatha, Sacetanatha, Kapila, and Nanaka. Ten others—Giri, Puri, Varatyadi, Saila, Naga, Sarasvati, Ramanandi, Syamanandi, Sukumara, and Achyuta—left their homes and wander from place to place. See above, chap. 5, n. 95. 92. See Gorakh Bant SabadI 177, on the loss of a yogin's semen as the shame of his guru; Gorakh Bani Pad 48.1-3, on the female vulva as a tigress or vampiress. Cf. Kablr, Doha 20.6 (in Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali, p. 98). On the cleavage, within the Nath Siddhas, between the celibate and hathayogic "Gorakh" and noncelibate, erotico-mystical "Matsyendra" branches, see Bharati, Siddh-Sdhity, p. 324. How ever, Dvivedi (Nath Sampraday, p. 50) divides the Nath Siddha lineages between the descendants of the "hathayogic" Gorakh and Matsyendra, and the "eroticomystical" Jalandhara and Kanipa.
"plantain forest." The alchemical BhP (4.108) seemingly evokes this myth when it states that a "barren woman born in the Plantain Forest (kadali vanaja vandhya) repeats the name of Mlna in incantation (japayast")" when a number of ingredients are mixed together.
102. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 45. NSC, pp. 58-59. As a multiple of sixteen, the figure of sixteen hundred, surely symbolic, is given in a number of sources: Cunninath, Tan-Prakas, p. 199; Temple, Legends of the Panjab, vol. 2, p. 6 (v. 50). Pir Premnath (Siva-Goraksa, p. 15) places the number at sixteen. Ratansen requests and receives sixteen thousandpadumini women in Padmavat 62.6.
93. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 58. 94. On these works, see Zbavitel, Bengali Literature, pp. 189-90. This legend cycle is summarized in Sen, History of Bengali Literature, pp. 43-49; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 43-46; and Cunninath, Tan-Prakas, pp. 197-200. Other versions, which differ little from these accounts, are the Maharashtran YSA; the Dharmamangala of Sahadev Cakravarti (summarized in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 368, n. 1), and the 20th c. Natha Caritra, an adaptation of three works from the Jodhpur library of Man Singh, the early 19th c. Marwari royal patron of the Nath Siddhas. There are also vernacular versions of this drama, in Nepali, Maithili, and other medieval languages: Mukherji, Gopicandra Nataka, pp. xxxvi, xliv. See above, chap. 5, n. 80.
103. Gorakh is conquering death with this feat, and, as such, he is specifically said to harrow hell to thrash Yama (the god of Death), who had presumed to take his guru from him: Goraksa Vtjaya pp. 45-48, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 222. 104. Temple, Legends, 2:21 (v. 208); Pancanand Mandal, ed. Gorakha Vijaya (Cal cutta: Visvabharati Granthalaya, 1949), Gautam, Gorakhnath Caritra, pp. 51-55; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 48. See below, nn. 174-78. 105. He must also return Matsyendra's soul to his original body: this he does with the help of a yaksini, who has reconstituted the butchered body of the Nath, and placed it atop Mount Kailash for safekeeping: Gautam, Goraknath Caritra, pp. 96-97.
95. Sen, History of Bengali Literature, p. 44. 96. Ibid., p. 45; NSC, pp. 95-97; and Pir Premnath, Siva-Goraksa (New Delhi: Vijnana Prakashan, 1982), p. 15. 97. Summarized in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 48-49. 98. Matsyendra's feat of parakayapravesa (and Gorakh's role) is also chronicled in the i5th-i7th c. Sankara Digvijaya (9.80-84) of Madhava. On this feat, see also NSC, pp. 27, 57-59; and KJnN 10.26-8. The god Rudra is said to have taken the human form of Lakulisa, the ca. 2d c. A.D. founder of the early Pasupata sect by entering and reanimating a brahmin's corpse on a cremation ground: Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 664.
106. Gorakha Vijaya, pp. 21-22, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 223. 107. Gautam, Gorakhnath Caritra, p. 62; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 46; Das gupta, Obscure, p. 213; Srivastav, "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 262. In another legend, Gor akh kills and revives two other of Matsyendra's sons, the "Jain" Nemlnath and Parsvanath: Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 190, 223; Rose, Glossary, 2:394.
99. Alternatively, Matsyendra's queen dices up the body that the yogin has "left behind," so that he cannot return to it: Camanlal Gautam, Sri Gorakhnath Caritra (Bareilly: Samskrti Samsthan, 1981), p. 62, 96-97; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 48-49. In other sources, his lusty queen is named Paramila, Mahgala, or Kamala: Cunninath, Tan-Prakas, pp. 198-99. 100. Sen, History, pp. 45-46; NSC, pp. 27, 57-59, 61; Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 48-49. Pir Premnath (Siva-Goraksa, p. 15) simply calls this kadali van, the
101. Cunninath, Tan-Prakas', p. 198. It is also located on the Malabar coast: the site of the old and important Nath monastery of Kadri is identified with Kadali: Narharinath, Nav Nath, p. 7.
108. Jan Gonda, Visnuism and Sivaism: A Comparison (London: Athlone, 1970), p. 112. In the case of the group studied in Bengal by Ralph Nicholas ("Ritual Hier archy and Social Relations in Rural Bengal," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s. 1 [Dec. 1967], p. 69), the young men who do the swinging are "temporary renouncers" coming from the Mahisya caste, whose original caste name was Kaibarrta, i.e., the same as that of the fisherman Matsyendra in the KJnN (16.27-56) myth of the recovery of the Kaula teachings from the Ocean of Milk: see above, n. 29. 109. Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 378 n. 2. Dasgupta notes that the term found in the Bengali Mangala-kavyas is kala-van. Here, a philological identification of plantains (kadala) with lunar digits (kala) is significant one: the full moon would be a bunch of sixteen plantains. In a yogic context in which the moon in the cranial vault fills with semen, the plantain would again bear a sexual significance.
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110. Sunyasampadane 21.12 (vol. 5, p. 399). i n . Oddly, it is a rejection of Gorakhnath's body-oriented yogic practice that the poet, Prabhudeva, is making here. See above, chap. 4, nn. 115-16, 167. 112. See above, chap. 4, nn. 163-64. 113. Mahabharata 3.146.63-64, cited in Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawati, p. 253. See also Madeleine Biardeau, Histoires depoteaux: Variations autour de la De'esse hindoue, Publications de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 154 (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 1989), p. 286. In the epic, Bhlma encounters his "fa ther," Hanuman, who is guarding the forest, a motif found in one of the legends of the Kadali-rajya. Dvivedi (Xatb Sampraday, pp. 53-54), who lists a number of pos sible locations for a historical Kingdom of Women which may have lain behind this motif, favors both Garhwal-Kumaon, in the Himalayan foothills of western Uttar Pradesh, and Kamarupa, in Assam, as the most likely venues. 114. On these three variant readings, see Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawati, p. 250. Similarly, Bengali sources on Matsyendra's imprisonment give the variant readings of kacali and kachar for kadali: Bagchi, introduction to KJnN, p. 17. On Alexander's Zulmat, see Shirreff's translation of and notes to Padmavati 166 [12.5] and 528 [= 42.5] (pp. 91, 288-89); a n c l Sharma, Jayasi Granthavali, p. 804. 115. kabir, Siikhi 29.2 (in Vaudeville, Kiibir, p. 290). On Goplcand, see Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawati, pp. 251-52. See also Shirreff's translation of and notes to Padmavati 166 [12.5] (p. 91). 116. On the Alha Khand, see Stuart H. Blackburn, Peter J. Claus, Joyce B. Fluekiger, and Susan Wadley, eds., Oral Epics in India (Berkeley: University of Cali fornia Press, 1989), pp. 197-202. Both the legends of Ratansen and of Alha concern 12 th c. Rajput princes facing the Turkish conquest of north India, and both hail from the same Hindi-speaking heartland of north central India. The Goplcand legend flourishes in Bengal as well as across western India: a Rajasthani song cycle of Goplcand is translated and interpreted by Ann Grodzins Gold, A Carnival of Parting: The Tales of King Bharthari and King Gopi Chand as Sung and Told by Madhu NatisarNath ofGhatiyali, Rajasthan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 159-310. Cf. idem., "Gender and Illusion in a Rajasthani Yogic Tradition," in Tale, Text and Time: Interpreting South Asian Exp?-essive Traditions, ed. Frank Korom, Arjun Appadurai, and Margaret Mills (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), pp. 102-35. A Punjabi version is given in Temple, Legends, vol. 2, pp. 1-77 (legend no. 18). 117. On kajali ban in the legend of Puran Bhagat (who appears to borrow from Kabir when he tells his mother to "loose his elephant in Kajali Van": see below, chap. 9, n. 170), see Temple, Legends 2:426 (legend no. 34, "Puran Bhagat," v. 604). In a Rajasthani folk cycle, Goplcand cries out to his guru Jalandharanath, "Oh ho
ho, Guru Maharaj . . . your eyes are closed over there in Kajali Woods": Gold, "Gender and Illusion," p. 118. 118. Yogavasistha 3.98-99, in Swami Venkatesananda, Vasisthas Yoga (Albany, N.Y., SUNY Press, 1993), pp. 119-20. 119. On eating poison (visdhar), see Amaraughasasana, p. 8. On the thighs of a woman as a boat to salvation, cf. the words of the Kapalika Kapota in the Kalikd Parana (49.1-53.217) myth of Taravatl, Candrasekhara, Bhairava, and Vetala, translated in O'Flaherty, Siva, p. 206. 120. With the awakening of the kundalini, the triangle of the downturned mouth reverses its direction to become an upturned mouth (tirddhavaktra): Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 27, 34-35 (plates), 173-74, '9°; cr - Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 64, citing TA 28.147. 121. On this perennial image in Chinese symbolism of the microcosm and mac rocosm, see Rolf Stein, "Jardins en miniature d'Extreme Orient," Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient 52 (1942), pp. 100-4; an( ^ below, chap. 10, sec. 6. 122. Mahabharata 12.255.8, cited in Malamoud, "La brique percee," in Cuire le monde, p. 90. 123. Van Kooij, Worship of the Goddess, p. 42; Muller-Ortega, Triadic, p. 123; and Sanderson, "Mandala," pp. 169-76, especially 174-76. 124. Brhaddranyaka Upanisad 4.2.2-3; 4.4.22; Chdndogya Upanisad 3.14. 2-3; 8.1.1-4; Maitri Upanisad 7.2. The heart is also said to be the seat of the mind {manas) in RV 8.89.5. ^n t n e medical tradition, the heart is said to be the seat of consciousness and the site of the "eighth dhdtu" of the body: this is ojas, the fluid that keeps the body alive, of which there are only eight drops: Caraka Samhitd
I1774-75; I-30-4. 7125. A number of tantric sources locate the ether or void in the heart. These include the works of the Trika Kaula reformers (Muller-Ortega, Triadic, especially pp. 142-46; and Padoux, Vac, pp. 28, 128 n. 117, 137 n. 140), in which the heart is the locus of the void/ether, because it is here that sound arises in its subtlest form. Ether is the substrate or sound source of the primal vibration (f/YP 4.101). 126. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 40 n. 7, citing Kabir, Granthavali 31.1—3. 127. Such Upanisadic identifications of the void with the absolute brahman (kham brahman: Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 5.1.1) may have facilitated this localiza tion: the cranial vault is the locus of brahman, where the central channel (also called the brahmamarga) culminates in the brahmarandhra. Abhinavagupta (TA 3.137-40) terms the s'ivavyoman, the "heaven of Siva" (vyoman, however, also is a term for ether), as the highest of his metaphysical categories and the highest point in the subtle body, identifying it with the seventeenth kala or thirty-seventh tattva: Pa doux, Vac, p. 91. See also ibid., pp. 95-96, 281, 424, on the connections between
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this metaphysical concept and mantric practice. Nath Siddha localizations of the void in the cranial vault may be found in Gorakh Bdni, Sabadl 1.18, 23, 45, 51, 55, 176, 231, etc. 128. Goraksa Sataka 67. Detailed discussions of the many uses of the term sunya in the medieval Hindu and Buddhist mysticism of the Bengali Siddhacaryas, Nath Siddhas, Virasaivas, Maharashtran mystics, Kablr, etc., are Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali, p. xx; Bharati, Siddh Sdhity, pp. 336-69; and Shankar Gopal Tulpole, Mysti cism in Medieval India (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984), pp. 196-97. 129. gagan mamdal maim umdha kuba taham amrt ka basaV sagura hoi su bhari bhari plvai nigura jal piyasa: Gorakh Bdni, Sabadl 23. On other uses of sunya, cf. Sabadl 1, 46, 91, 176. Cf. Siva Samhita 4.31. 130. RV1.164.36; 8.69.3; Atharva Veda 10.8.9. Cf. Satapatha Brahmana 1.6.4.5; 6.1.2.4; 7-i.i-io-i6; 10.4.2.1; 11.2.5.3; 12.7.3.4. The head is compared to a downturned vessel, filled withyasas that is identified with breath in Chandogya Upanisad 2.2.3. The classical study on the early history of such identifications is Jan Gonda, "Soma, Amrta and the Moon," in Change and Continuity, pp. 38-70. 131. Gydn Calisa 24-26, in Srivastav, "'Gorakh Bdni" Vis'esdnk, p. 352. This work is not included in Barthwal's edition of the Gorakh Bdni. 132. Doha 5.45, in Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali, p. 16. 133. V K. Sethi, ed. Kabir: The Weaver of God s Name (Beas, Punjab: Radha Soami Satsang Press, 1984), pp. 233, 461. Cf. Das, Kabir Granthavali 14.40; "Chalu hamsa va des." On Kablr's language, see ibid., pp. 56, 199. 134. Gorakh Bdni, Pad 47.1-8, with Srivastav's commentary, pp. 302-5. Pad 47 is found on pp. 141-42 of Barthwal's edition of the Gorakh Bdni. 135. Verses 5-8 of Barthwal's edition read as follows: ujad sedd nagar majhari tali gdgari upar panihdri magaripari culhd dhundhdipovanhdrd kau rori khai kdmminijalai agithi tdpai bici baisamdar tharhar kdmpai ekju radhiyd radhti dibahu bivdi sdsujdi nagari kau pdnim kui dvai ulati cared goras gdvai. {Gdgari, the term employed here for water pot, is defined as a "small metal vessel": Samksipt Hindi Sabd Sdgar, s.v. "gagara." 136. Temple, Legends, vol. 1, pp. 166-68 (w. 513-38 of legend no. 6, "The Leg end of Guru Guga"). Verses 536-37 read: "hal dekho mere tan ka / phor do garhe die mahare." On doghar[d], the practice of carrying two superposed water pots on one's head, see v. 522, and note on p. 167. 137. Sdkhi 20.5 [= Doha 31.11], in Vaudeville, Kabir, p. 262. Already in the Vedas, heaven and earth are viewed as two halves of a single whole, at once joined together and held apart by a pillar {RV 1.160.4; 3.31.12-13, etc.): the term rodasi is a
dual form ("heaven and earth") that was primordially a singular: Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "rodas." 138. The full account is found in Temple, Legends, vol. 2, pp. 375-456 and Charles Swynnerton, Romantic Tales from the Panjdb (Westminster: Archibald Con stable & Co., 1903), pp. 411-41. It is summarized in Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 18485, 197-98. The original myth of this sort may be the Rgvedic account of Trita, who is thrown down a heavenly well (the dark of the moon?) by his treacherous brothers. He performs a mock soma sacrifice at the bottom of the well, and the gods come and "flush" him out (the waxing of the moon?): RV 1.105.1-28; Jaiminiya Brahmana 1.184; Mahdbhdrata 9-35-3-51, in O'Flaherty, Tales of Sex and Violence, PP- 53-57139. The well, called Puran's Well, is located in a village named Puranwala, five miles outside of Sialkot, in the Punjab (Pakistan): Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 98-99, 185; and personal communication from Alain Wattelier (who visited the site in the 1970s), Paris, June 1985. 140. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 194. Another Nath Siddha, Kanthadlnath, also seals himself into a well to mediate: NSC, p. 22. 141. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 825-26; NSC 286; Sankarnath Yogisvar, Sri Mastndth carit {Sri Mastndth adbhut lild prakds) (Delhi: Dehati Pustak Bhandar, 1969), p. 136. Through the miracle of this well (related in chap. 20 of Sankarnath's work), Man Singh acceded to the throne of Marwar in 1804, and it is a historical fact that he established his Nath Siddha miracle worker as his chief minister: see below, chap. 11, sec. 3. 142. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 188. 143. Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, p. 394n. 144. Stein, "Jardins en miniature," pp. 57-58, citing the Yun-ki ts'i-tsein (quoted without reference in the P'ei-wen yun-fou). The gourd doubles for one of the three "fields" or "wells of cinnabar" located in the Taoist body. Cf. idem, "Architecture etpensee en Extreme-Orient," Arts Asiatiques 4:3 (1957), pp. 176, 185. 145. On Vedic diksd, see Aitareya Brahmana 1.3. On Ayurvedic kutiprdves'a, "en tering the hut," a three-chambered hut that is explicitly identified with the female reproductive organs, see above,chap. 2, nn. 47-48, and Caraka Samhita 6.1.16: "The sages knew of two sorts of rasdyana: that of entering the hut, and [the practice] of wind and sun {jiatatapt)T 146. Dalpatram Pranjivan Khakhar, "History of the Kanphatas of Kacch," Indian Antiquary 7 (February 1878), p. 47; Srinath TirthdvaliofMan Singh (Churu, Rajasthan: n.p., 1951), w. 5, 42, 283-85. 147. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 99; Krtyakalpataru of Laksmldhara, vol. 8, p. 84. 148. Personal communication from Surya Kumar Yogi, Menal (Rajasthan),
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Notes to Chapter Eight March 1985. For a general discussion, see MBhT 11.23-35. On the importance of wells at the pithas of Kamakhya and Hiiiglaj, see Van Kooij, Worship, p. 27; and Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 108. 149. RC 3.1; Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 80. 150. Such mineral theophanies are quite a commonplace it pithas of the God dess—or conversely, many sulfurous pools, in areas of geothermic activity, are con sidered to be manifestations of the Goddess (Sharma's commentary to the Rasaratnasamiuchaya, pp. 10-11; 184-85; 210-11). See above, chap. 7, nn. 53, 70-71. 151. Girnar is a site that is shared by Saiva Hindus and Jains alike. In the case of this tirtha, the alchemical mythology is Jaina, and is found in chap. 4 of the Vividhatirthakalpa, trans. John Cort, "Twelve Chapters from The Guidebook to Vari ous Pilgrimage Places, the Vividhatirthakalpa of Jinaprabhasuri," in Phyllis Granoff, ed., The Clever Adulteress and the Hungry Monk (New York: Mosaic Press, 1990), pp. 25-90. Cf. Granoff, "Jain Biographies of Nagarjuna," pp. 48-49, on Jain mythology of the alchemist Nagarjuna; and Rosu, "Alchemy and Sacred Geography," p. 156. 152. The alchemical wonders of Srisailam are praised at great length in the Rasayana Khanda [part 4] of the Rasaratndkara of Nityanatha. Chap. 8 of this section is entitled "Sriparvata Sadhana." Cf. Rosu, ibid., pp. 151-56, who questions the alchemical cachet of Srisailam as described in this and other sources. 153. Devi Purana, cited in Laksmldhara, Krtyakalpataru, vol. 8, p. 231; and Skanda Purana 1.27.33-77; 1-29.87. The same pools, etc. are described in the pil grim's guide I purchased while on the Kedarnath pilgrimage in May 1984: Sri Ked arnath Mdhdtmya (Ydtrd Gaid, ed. Shersingh Shah (Kedarnath: Shersingh Shah, n.d.), pp. 41-43. 154. Sastri, Agneyatirtha Hiiiglaj, p. 54. See above, chap. 7, nn. 70, 120. Given the fact that the Ganges and the Yamuna, identified with the ids and pingala chan nels of the subtle body, rise out of Himalayan glaciers to the east and west of Kedar nath respectively; and that a "SarasvatI Gariga" (i.e., susumna) appears near Ke darnath (Kalyan Sakti Ahk, p. 671), the subtle physiology of the nadis is also geographically reproduced here. The sixth cakra, the djnd, located between the eye brows at that place at which the three major nadis are said to meet, is moreover called Kedar in HYP 3.24. The Nine Naths and "Kedar" are identified with the ten doors in Gorakh Bani Pad 9.1. See above, sec. 2b. 155. Srinath Tirthavali, w. 267-72. A similar image, that of hitting a brass cup atop seven bamboo poles, is found in the "Marriage of Sakhl Sarwar," legend no. 22 in Temple, Legends, vol. 2, p. 127. 156. Stein, Grottes-Matrices, pp. 37-43. See also ibid., pp. 15-23 for a survey of Hindu "womb-caves" throughout the Indian subcontinent, including those of Hiiiglaj and Kamakhya.
Notes to Chapter Eight 157. The medical and chemical name for mercury is hydrargyrum, from hydros + argentum, whence the symbol Hg in the periodic table; it is therefore possible to abbreviate "wells of mercury" to "Hg Wells." It will be recalled that an author named H. G. Wells wrote a book entitled The Food ofthe Gods, an apt denomination for the mercury that alchemists ate. 158. See above, chap. 7, sec. 3. 159. A yantra (from the root yam) is that which controls or subdues. In alchemy, the term is applied to apparatus of the sort we are describing here, which control such volatile elements as mercury and fire. For other uses of the term in tantrism, see above, chap. 6, n. 93. 160. The extraction of mercury from cinnabar, through the use of the vidyddhara or urddhvapatana yantra is described in RRS 9.56. The sublimation of mer cury, through amalgamation with copper and in combination with various plant substances, also in the urddhvapatana yantra, is described in RRS 11.37. Similar instructions are found in /1/L 4.38-43, RHT 2.8, RA 10.55, a n c ' m every other major alchemical work. The RA (7.49) also describes a procedure for the purification of cinnabar in the same yantra: the resulting essence (sattva) of cinnabar has the ap pearance of mercury (rasasankasa). 161. RRS 9.24-25. In some sources, the upper pot is upturned and filled with water, such that mercury condenses on the outside surface of its base: Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 225. 162. RRS 9.57. 163. Rasendracintdmani 8.3, cited in Prakash, Pracin Bhdrat, p. 575. 164. Sharma, identifying the urddhvapatana yantra with the vidyddhara in his commentary to RRS 1.88 (p. 14), cites the Rasapaddhati. This apparatus is also de scribed in ^ 4 . 4 2 ; 5.51-52. 165. Amanaskayoga 2.15: urddhvamustiradhodrstir urddhvabhedastvadhah s'irah /dharayantravidhanena jlvanmuktah bhavisyati. The s'ambhavi mudra is a Kaula technique which would appear to have some connection to the Kubjika cult of the Western Transmission, in which a "masculinized" form of practice is called s'dmhhava ("pertaining to Sambhu, Siva"): Sanderson, "Saivism," p. 687. Sdmbhavi-vidyd is the subject of the Jfiianasankalinitantra (HTSL, p. 102); and s'ambhavi diksd, a form of initiation particular to the Nath Siddhas (Bharati, Tantric Tradition, pp. 90-91). Sambhavi is also synonymous with the medial channel, the susumna, according to HYP 3.4; and the hathayogic sambhavi mudra is nearly identical with the renowned khecarimudra (HYP 4.38-39). On this, see below, sec. 4 of this chapter. 166. Goraksa Sataka, v. 62. Other verses (131a, 138c) speak of a pool (dhdra) of lunar nectar in the cranial vault, which the yogin is to drink, lest it fall into the sun in the lower abdomen.
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167. The Yonitantra passage (68a) is translated and discussed by Schoterman on pp. 12-13 °f his edition of the text. Elsewhere, the KCM (fol. 2489-24^1) states that "by using [a device] composed of dhara, one attains immortality" (dhardmdyd pra[yo]gena cdmaratvdpnuydt). This verse of the Amanaskayoga (ed. Yognath Swami [Poona: Siddh Sahity Samsodhan Prakashan Mandal, 1967]) is singled out by the great tantric scholar Gopinath Kaviraj (foreword, p. 22) as the most singular por tion, if not the very heart of this text (editor's preface, pp. 10-11), and the editor and Hindi commentator discusses his difficulty in making sense of it (pp. n-14). He refers to the Mahdbhdrata (1.179.14-17) account of Arjuna's winning of Draupadi, in which the epic hero pierces the target {vivyddha laksyam) (called "piercing the fish" [matsyavedha] in Hindi) placed atop a pole with an arrow shot from the bow Siva has previously given him. This he does by looking downward (adhodrstih) into a pool of water (dhdrayantra) as he clenches his fist around his upward-held bow (urddhvamusti): his head is turned downwards (adhah sirah: but the text gives sirah) as his target (bheda) is above. His "piercing of the fish" is at once the hitting of his target, the winning of DraupadI, an inward-looking posture of yoga, or a reverse technique of sexual intercourse. This interpretation has the merit of pre serving the orthography dhara, whereas my interpretation requires a reading of -dhara. 168. RRS 11.38. 169. RRS 9.9; 11.39. Cf. Dash, Alchemy, pp. 58-62, on the identification of the various -pdtanas as variant processes, all of which make use of the vidyddhara yantra. 170. Goraksa Sataka 135. Verses 133-34 read: "In the region of the navel dwells the lonely sun, whose essence is fire; located at the base of the palate is the eternal moon, whose essence is nectar. That which rains down from the downturned mouth of the moon is swallowed by the upturned mouth of the sun. The practice [of viparitakarana] is to be performed as a means to obtaining the nectar [which would otherwise be lost]." This passage is also found in Gorakhnath's Yogamdrtanda,w. I2i-i2 2a, 123b. This posture is described in both the HYP (3.77-79) and Goraksa Paddhati (pp. 48-49), immediately before their respective treatments of the vajroll mudrd. It is dramatized in a legend from Dhinodar, in Kacch (Gujarat), de scribed above, chap. 5, n. 204. 171. Gorakh Bam, appendix 1 to BarthwaPs edition, p. 242. The full verse reads: ulati yantr dhare sisar asan kare/ . . . silahat madhye kamvaru jltale/ nirmal dhuni gagan mamhl. The upside-down yantra here is the (normally) downturned triangle of the inner yoni, located in the mulddhdra cakra, here identified with the old Bud dhist pitha named Sirihatta, at the center of which is the pitha named Kamarupa. For a discussion of this element of the subde body, see above, n. 170. Lalla's story
is told in the Tdrikh-i hasan of Pir Ghulam Hasan: Jayalal Kaul, Lai Ded (New Delhi: Sahirya Akademi, 1973), p. 14. I am grateful to Patricia Greer for sharing this reference. 172. Henri Maspero, he Taoi'sme et lesreligionschinoises, with a preface by Maxitne Kaltenmark (Paris: Gallimard, 1971), p. 492 and n. 6. Cf. Kristofer Schipper, Le corps taoiste (Paris: Fayard, 1982), pp. 137-53. The Palace of the Cinnabar Field is also termed Nihan, the ideogram for which was, in this early period, the same as that for the nirvana of import Buddhism. Also qualified as the residence of the Highest One (Maspero, Le Taoisme, p. 493), its resemblance to the brahman of Hin duism and the sunya of Siddha traditions is equally striking. 173. In alchemy as well, there is an apparatus properly known as the damaru yantra. This apparatus is nearly identical to and may be used interchangeably with the urddhvapdtana: see RRS 9.57 with Sharma's commentary, p. 143; and Rasahrdaya Tantra, introduction, p. xxiii. 174. The location of a mystic damaru in the head would appear to refer to this tantric schema: Bhiitasuddhi Tantra 3.3, in Tantrasamgraha, 4 vols., ed. Gopinath Kav iraj and Ramaprasad Tripathi (Benares: Sampurnanand Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya, 1973-81), vol. 4, p. 313. See below, chap. 10, sec. 6. 175. Literally, "upward-tending semen," this term is most often translated as "celibacy, chastity." The sense, however, was that the ascetic is holding his semen up and away from his penis, from which it might all too easily slip away from him. Indian popular tradition is filled with accounts of "semen-headed yogis," a reflec tion of this interpretation: G. Morris Carstairs, The Twice Born (London: Hogarth Press, 1958), p. 86. 176. Four such drums (catalogue numbers R.VII-230, R.XII-835, R.XII-836a, and R.XII-798a) are presently housed in the National Museum of Denmark in Co penhagen. I am grateful to Rolf Gilberg, curator of this collection at the National Museum, for his ready cooperation in supplying me with this information. 177. This description of the Tibetan damaru, called the "skull drum" (thod-rna), is found in Mireille Helffer and Marc Gaborieau, "A propos d'un tambour du Kumaon et de l'ouest du Nepal: Remarques sur l'utilisation des tambours-sabliers dans le monde indien, le Nepal et le Tibet," in Stadia instrumentorum musicae populares, Festschrift to E. Emsheimer on the occasion of his 70th birthday (Stockholm: Musikhistorika Museet, 1974), p. 78 and pi. 13. 178. Ibid., p. 75. 179. Ibid., p. 78. 180. Personal communication from Sangye Sonam, a Tibetan monk at Chatral Rinpoche's monastery, Pharphing, Nepal, May 1993.1 am grateful to Peter Moran, who served as my interpreter in this interview.
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181. Caryapada 3, with the commentary of Munidatta and the translation (com piled in "Yambu," in Nepal) of Klrticandra, reproduced in Bagchi, "Some Aspects of Buddhist Mysticism in the Caryapadas," Studies, pp. 75, 79, 84-85. I have en hanced and "Hinduized" Bagchi's treatment of this passage.
An Anthropological Exploration (Varanasi: N. K. Bose Memorial Foundation, 1978),
182. Cf. HYP 3.47 which terms a homologous process "drinking the immortal liquor" (pibedamaravarunim). 183. See below, sec. 4, for an extended discussion of the "tenth door" of the subtle body. 184. Yogamartanda 177: "When the upbreath disappears and the mind is ab sorbed, that is then called the unity of samarasa, samadhiV 185. Goraksa Paddhati 1.68-74. Schoterman (Yonitantra, p. 29) suggests that the vajrolimudra may have been used in lieu of the khecari mudra in some cases: instead of maintaining the combined bindus in the head through the latter, the practitioner would recover the same fluids through urethral suction and then simply drink them. 186. Khecaricakra refers to an elaborate mandala of sixty-four yoginis and to the circle in which tantrikas engage in ritualized sex. On this, see Dyczkowski, "Kun dalini," p. 6; BhP 1.77; RA 3.17, 20; and Vidya Dehejia, Yogini Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition (New Delhi: National Museum, 1986), pp. 44-45. The contents of the KhVhzve been discussed in detail: see above, chap. 5, sec. 5m. 187. Maitrf Upanisad (6.19): "By pressing the tip of his tongue against the palate . . . one sees brahman through contemplation." Another early reference is found in KJnN6.18-28. Cf. Goraksa Sataka 67; Goraksa Paddhati 1.68; Yogamartanda 58; Gorakh Bani SabadI 133; H I T 3.41-42. 188. Kakar, Shamans, p. 203. See Bharati, Tantric Tradition, pp. 242-43, for a general discussion of the multiple meanings of this term. 189. Atharva Veda 10.8.43; Svetasvatara Upanisad 3.18. The yogin seals himself off doubly from the outside by enclosing himself in a windowless room to meditate: Yogatattva Upanisad 32, in Varenne, Upanishads duyoga, p. 74. This recalls as well the initiation hut of Vedic diksd and the Ayurvedic practice of kutipravesa. See above, chap. 2, nn. 47-48. 190. Kaviraj, Aspects of Indian Thought, pp. 236-37; Dasgupta, History, 2:253. 191. Amaraughasasana, pp. 10-11, discussed in Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 131-32; Dasgupta, Obscure, pp. 239-42, citing Gorakha Vijaya, ed. Mandal, pp. 141, 143-44. Cf. Yogavisaya of Matsyendranath, w. 30-31, in Mallik, ed. SSP, p. 47. 192. In order to do so, he has already cut away the frenum, which anchors the tongue to the lower palate, through a technique described in HYP 3.32. 193. On the Juna Akhada, see Rajesh Bedi, Sadhus: The Holy Men at India (New Delhi: Brijbasi Printers, 1991), p. 79; S. Sinha and B. Saraswati, Ascetics of Kashi:
PP- 93-94194. This echoes a statement from the Yogavisaya attributed to Matsyendranatha (v. 24 in Mallik, ed. SSP, p. 47): "When the nada is heard, the s'ankhini showers the body with nectar." The s'ankhinl runs from a point behind the forehead to the throat: Silburn, Kundalini, p. 130. Drinking nectar is a commonplace of Nath mys tic poetry: Gorakh Bani SabadI 67, 171; SSP 6.64. 195. Amaraughasasana, p. 7. 196. Silburn {Kundalini, p. 131) and Dasgupta (Obscure, pp. 239-42 and notes) assume there to be but one "tenth door," an impossibility given the descriptions of this door, which is to be variously opened and closed in different textual descrip tions. The mouth of the s'ankhini is called the tenth door in Gorakhnath's Amar aughasasana (p. 11), and SSP 2.6. The Nine Naths and "Kedar" are identified with the ten doors in Gorakh Bani Pad 9.1; the yogin is enjoined to lock this door in Pada 23.1, but to "blast it open" by closing the other nine in Atmabodh (in "Gorakh Bani" Visesank, p. 340). In the legend of Puran Bhagat, the evil stepmother Luna is identified as the tenth door of the royal palace: Temple, Legends, 2:398 (w. 265-66); in the Padmavat, it is the tenth door by which the fortress of Lanka (the body) must be stormed: see below, sec. 5 and n. 243; and chap. 9, sec. 7. 197. The clearest discussion of this doubling of the tenth door is found in Kavi raj, Aspects, p. 237. On the s'ankhini's two mouths, see Mandal, ed., Gorakha Vijaya, p. 141, cited in Dasgupta, Obsaire, p. 240. The Nath Siddhas generally identify the tenth door with the brahmarandhra, by which the fontanelle is intended: Gorakh Bani SabadI 135 (in which the yogin is said to throw a "door panel" [kapat] across this opening). The lower mouth is located in the talu-cakra, the sixth cakra in the nine-cakra system which expands upon the more conventional system of 6 + 1: SSP 2.6. Cf. Gorakh Bani Pad 2 3.1, with commentary; and Atmabodh 2 (in Srivastav, "Gorakh Bani" Visesank, p. 340). 198. Amaraughasasana, discussed in Silburn, Kundalini, p. 129: she is so called because when she sleeps, she is coiled three and one half times around the linga located in the abdominal region. The SSP (1.67), also apparently identifying s'arikhini with kundalini, states that the s'ankhiniflowsin the urethra (lingadvdra) and via a straight path up into the brabmarandhra and thence into all of the ten doors. 199. Gorakh Bani SabadI 219a. Identical to this is verse 5 of "Mahadev jl kl sabadl" (Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 66). The same concept is found in the S,9S (chap. 42, in Schoterman, SSS, p. 87, cited in Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 65), which states that the goal of the practitioner is "the union of the two [the highest and the lowest] mouths," identified with the highest and lowest of the seven cakras, as well as with the upper and lower yonis of the Sakta subtle body.
486
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200. Here, a "crooked" goddess may be easily assimilated to a curved duct, and one of the synonyms for both the sankhini and the kundalini is banka nala, "curved duct." This term also has an alchemical application: this is a curved tube which, tapered at one end, is used as a blowpipe for ventilating a flame. Yet, the 14th c. Gorakh Bodh (v. 62 in BarthwaPs numbering, Gorakh Bant, p. 186) distinguishes be tween susumnd, sankhini, and banka nala. On the banka nala of the subtle body, see also Yogavisaya v. 22 (in SSP, p. 46) and Gorakh Bani Pad 53.3. The alchemical banka nala is described in RA 4.58 and RRS 10.45. Cf. Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 147-48.
major alchemical work. Their construction and use are summarized in Dash, Al chemy, pp. 197-99.
201. For the western linga in the head, see Gorakh Bani Sabadl 187a and the Raja Rani Sambad of Goplcand, v. 105 (in Ndth Siddhom, p. 9). On the "microcosmic west," see also Gorakh Bani, Sabadl 41 and 267. The KJnN(ij.2$, 20.11) also asso ciates a coiled {kundaldkrti, kundali) goddess with the left side. On the lower west ern linga, see Goraksa Sataka 19. Cf. SSP 2.2, which states that the kundalini sleeps with her mouth over the pas'cima-linga, located in the second cakra, the svddhisthana. It is out of this vortex that seed is emitted in ejaculation: Srivastav, "Gorakh" Vtsesdnk, p. 131. 202. MBhT 7.18; Srinathakathasara of Dwarkanath, ed Narharinath Yogi (Be nares: n.p. 1951), p. 23. 203. Dyczkowski, "Kundalini," p. 3 n. 7. 204. Yogabija 135, 148, 159. Cf. Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, vol. 2, p. 285. 205. TA 29.124-29. On the female sexual organ as theyoginivaktra, the "mouth of the yogini" see Tantraloka Varttika, vol. 2, p. 104, cited in Padoux, Vac, p. 61. 206. Vdmamdrga (in Hindi), by Pandit Vanisidhar Sukul Vaidyaraj (Allahabad: Kalyan Mandir, 1951), v. n o , English translation in Bharati, Tantric Tradition, p. 264. The Hindi reads (ibid.,p. 277): "phir sakti ko gauri ki apne ko siv Id bhavana kar . . . matrmukh mem pitrmukh arpit kare." 207. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 190, citing TA 29.124-26, with the commentary of Jayaratha; and Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 64, citing TA 28.147. F ° r further discussion, see Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 27, 173-74, anc^ p ' a t e s o n PP- 34—35208. Manthdnabhairava Tantra, Kumarikakhanda 13.110-43, summarized in Dyczkowski, "Kundalini," pp. 17-18 n. 27, who remarks that "although one can distinguish two Yonis, there is in fact only one." 209. RA 11.17-18, 29-41; RRS 8.75-79. The image may be based on moveable Siva lingas, over which "mouthed" sheaths could be superimposed: Bagchi, "Fur ther Notes on Tantrik Texts Studied in Ancient Kambuja," Studies, p. 21. 210. On the term mudra in alchemical terminology, see Sharpe, Eight-Hundred Year Old Book, p. 106. Putas are discussed in RA 6.101-22; RRS 10.47-64, and every
211. Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 169, 192, in which samputikarana is an exchange of male and female energies that occurs through, but is not limited to, the act of sexual intercourse. The same term applies to the telescoping of elements back into their source, in the ascension of the kundalini or in the distillation of the 51 phonemes of the Sanskrit language into the bisyllabic aham, the universal I (ibid., p. 9). The term samputa means "skull" or "cranium" in Hindi: Samksipt Hindi Sabd Sdgar, s.v. "samputa." 212. Kaviraj, Bhdratiy 1:276, 282, 287-89; AM (London, Wellcome MSS no. g5oi) fol. 358.7-8, describing the kaulaketu ritual of the Siddha Marga. 213. Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," pp. 154-55. This is a portion of a text describing a tantric Buddhist initiation. Cf. KM (London, Wellcome MSS no. g50i) fol. 353.7-8; KJnN 18.22-23; and KPT (in Bhattacarya, ed. Indrajdla vidydsamgraha, p. 265) for similar language. 214. Kaviraj, Bhdratiy, 2:293 n - I : "The mouth of the sankhini nddi is, in tantric treatises, precisely the mouth of the guru; it is otherwise designated as Siva's upper mouth. It is from this site that the teaching of the [initiatory] tdraka mantra is transmitted into the disciple's right ear." 215. The Sdrada Tilaka (5.139) has the guru transfer "that which has oozed in side his mouth" (vidruvaktrdntara) into the mouth of his disciple. Often, the guru is said to directly penetrate the heart of his disciple with the divine energy he has stored up inside himself. On this notion, and the similarities and differences be tween tantric initiation between males and ritualized sex between a male and a female, see Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 175-76. 216. Goraksa Paddhati, appendix to 1.62 [p. 32] and 2.16; HYP 3.12, 27. 217. Rudraydmala Tantra 17.73, 85-87. 218. Khecari mudra is also the term employed by a Nath suborder, the Gudaras, for the cylinders of wood which they pass through their earlobes. The Gudaras were founded by a member of the Dasnami sect and are not generally considered by Nath sampraddyins to be one of their own: Briggs, Gorakhndth, p. 11. Given the fact that the piercing of the ears opens a channel without which yogic practice cannot be effective, the term is an apt one: on this, see below, chap. 10, sec. 4. 219. RA 11.151, 154, 162-63, 2 I 9 220. On gutikd bandha, see Gorakh Bani Sabadl 49; on the khecari and other al chemical gutikds, see RA 12.336-37, RHT 19.65-76; RRS 11.88; and Brahmananda's commentary to //KP4.27. On thesiddhigutikd, see Padmdvat 222 [= 23.1] (p. 482 of Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawdti; and p. 135 of Shirreff, Padmdvatt). On
4 HH
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Notes to Chapter Eight
khecari mercury, see RA 2.89; 3.9, 17-20; 11.98-107, 149-53, 162-63; 12.380; on khecaris'akti, see KJiiN 5.4; 6.18-28; 7.14; 20.10; and Dyczkowski, Canon, p. 168 n. 52. A folktale from Benares casts Gorakhnath in the miraculous recovery of thousands of such gutikas: personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, Be nares, March 1985. 221. In the RRS (6.13-14), there is a "division of labor" between the practical and the spiritual components of the alchemist's craft. On the one hand, the alche mist carries out his chemical operations in a laboratory (rasasala); on the other, he effects his daily worship of the alchemical gods in a temple {rasamandapa) built nearby. 222. The RRS (6.21) says the rasalinga is to be located on the eastern side of the alchemical altar (itself located at the center of the rasamandapa). The Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat (Malaysia) alchemical temple site studied by Francis Treloar ("Use of Mercury," pp. 232-40) has its rasalinga at the center of the structure. The rasaman dapa described in the RA (2.52) also has the rasalinga at its center. 223. On this mandala in the RA and RC, see above, chap. 6, sec. 2. The RC mandala is graphically reproduced in Rosu, "Mantra et Yantra," p. 252 (fig. 5). A simpler mandala is described in Misra, Ayurvedfya, p. 83. 224. See above, chap. 7, sec. 3 and nn. 56-59. 225. RA 1.43; 2.52; RRS 1.23-28; 6.14-23; MBhTS.1-10; RC 1.37-38. See also Treloar, "Use of Mercury," especially pp. 237-38; and Siddhinandan Misra's intro duction to the Rasendracudamani, p. 5, in which he discusses the alchemical grounds for the foundation and installation of the rasalinga. 226. Misra, Ayurvedfya, p. 85. In his description of the Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat alchemical temple ruin, Treloar states that the mercurial linga unearthed there was set in a silver semicircle: Treloar, "Use of Mercury," pp. 237-38. 227. RA 2.77-82. The Vimalaprabha commentary to the Buddhist Kalacakra Tantra (2.213-15) presents a similar iconographic representation of this wor ship support, for use in the alchemical Jambhala rite: Fenner, Rasayan Siddhi, pp. 160-63. 228. RA 3.63-73; RRS 6.22-23. For the iconography of these images, see above, chap. 6, nn. 61-63. 229. See below, chap. 9, n. 23. 230. RHT 1.12. See above, chap. 7 sec. 5. 231. Bhattacharya, History, pp. 376-78. 232. The classic source on the pithas, which includes a critical edition of the 16th c. Bengali Pithanirnaya, is Sircar, Sakta Pithas, passim; for a lively rejoinder, however, see Pal, Hindu Religion, pp. 24-27. The Nath Siddha reckoning is found in Gorakh Bam SabadI 163. Much of the latter part of the SSS (especially 4.1-11) is
devoted to the Goddess's tour of her footstools, across an Indian subcontinent that is situated, in its entirety, within her body: Schoterman, SS5, p. 148. 233. For the alchemical lore relative to Hiriglaj and Kamakhya, see above, chap. 7 nn. 65-70. Kedar has been discussed above, n. 153. Alchemical descriptions of Srisailam are found in RRA 4.8.1-185. The RA description of Kailash is in 1.2-3. 234. On the symbolism of the Nine Naths, see Dasgupta, Obsaire, p. 206, citing the Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha, pp. 44-45; the Tantraraja Tantra (2.2-5, in Wbodroffe, Tantraraja Tantra, p. 19); and Schoterman, SSS, pp. 31-39. See above, chap. 4, nn. 53-60. 235. The Gorakh Bodh, a vernacular work cast in the form of a conversation between Gorakhnath and his guru Matsyendranath, is a veritable "skeleton key" to the "intentional language" of the Nath Siddhas concerning the bodily microcosm. Cf. the Pran Sankali of Caurariglnath, w. 206-341 (in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, pp. 19-28); and in Sanskrit, the third chapter of Gorakhnath s SSP. 236. Temple, Legends, 2:441; Swynnerton, Romantic Tales, pp. 426-33. 237. Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 185-86; Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumaivati, p. 251-52.Jayasi himself speaks of Sirhhala and Larika as two different places (Shirreff's notes to Padmavati 2.16), even if he clearly knows Simhala or Saiigaldlp to be an island situated to the south of India. There is, however, much more of fairyland than hard geography to Jayasl's Simhala, just as there is to the Kingdom of Women into which Matsyendra falls in the myths we related above. 238. It is Puran Bhagat (Caurariginath) himself who claims Matsyendra for his guru: Pran Sankaliw. 207, 221, 307, in NSB, pp. 19, 20, 26. On the localization of Matsyendra's "Plaintain Forest" in Sri Lanka, see Cunninath, Tan-Prakas, p. 198; Temple, Legends, 2:19 (v. 194); and above, n. 101. Gorakh Bani Pad 1.1-4 presents Matsyendra's imprisonment in the Kingdom of Women as the result of his Kaula propensities. The text of the poem consists of Gorakh's arguments against sexual intercourse as a component of tantric practice. 239. Padmavat 219-22 [= 22.8-10; 23.1], in Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawati, pp. 478-82; Sharma, Jayasi Granthavalt, pp. 347-55; and Shirreff, Padmavati, pp. 134-35. A similar description is in 2.16-18. This translation relies to some extent on Shirreffs translation; it relies more heavily, however, on Dvivedi's and Sharma's superior Hindi tika and commentary. Words in parentheses correspond to Shirreff's annotations; words in square brackets are my own additions. 240. The six cakras and the sahasrara: see above, chap. 2, n. 95. Similar imagery is found in such popular traditions as the legend of the marriage of a Muslim fakir named Sakhl Sarwar. In a preliminary test, SakhT Sarwar is made to hit with an arrow a brass cup that has been perched atop seven superimposed bamboo poles: "Marriage of Sakhl Sarwar," legend no. 22 in Temple, Legends, vol. 2, p. 127.
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Notes to Chapter Nine
241. Hath, the modern Indo-Aryan form othatha, as in hathayoga. 242. Cinhe (pi.), "marks," "signs," are the emblems a yogin wears (earrings, horn, wallet, etc.: see chap. 9, nn. 82-84) which are so many marks of his initiation into a given—in this case the Nath Siddha—order. 243. The nine gates and the tenth door are the bodily orifices and the inner brahmarandhra or sankhini nddi (also known as the banka nala); the five constables are the five breaths: see above, chap. 2, n. 29. 244. Bdnk[i], an alloform of banka, as in the bent tube, the banka nala, another name for the sankhini nddi, associated with the das'ama dvdra, the tenth door, located in the head. The reference to the body as "bent" or "crooked" at the beginning of this description would also refer to the crooked body of the sankhini, which doubles as the kundalini. See above, n. 200. 245. Bhed, "penetrate" has the extended meaning of "secret," as such are gener ally impenetrable until one has a clue with which to unlock them. This is the stan dard hathayogic term used for the "piercing" of the cakras by the kundalini. In al chemical parlance, this term comes to be closely identified with vedh, "pierce, penetrate," which is the term employed to signify transmutation, in which mercury is said to penetrate and thereby transform base metals into gold and mortals into immortals. 246. Cf. the "pools" in the ascent of Kedarnath (above, sec. 3, nn. 109-11); and the channeling of the Ganges associated with matsyodart. The path rising out of the pool at the base of the fortress (the muladhara cakra, where the kundalini sleeps) is clearly the medial susumna nddi: see above, n. 153. 247. Cf. the discussion of the reverse (viparita) yogic posture and the alchemical vidyddhara and other yantras: above, nn. 120-21. 248. The idea here is that one must dive down into the pool at the base of the fortress (the muladhara) in order to gain access to the path (the susumna nddi) that rises out of its depths. As I show in chap. 9, sec. 46, such can only be effected by restraining or binding (bandh) mind, breath, and seed. 249. See above, n. 220. 250. At once a reference to the opening of the lotuses that are the cakras when they are pierced and the initiatory role of the padmini, the Lotus Maiden, in tantric initiation: see below, chap. 10, sec. 2.
Fall, through the sexual union of Adam and Eve: Mircea Eliade, The Two and the One, trans. J. M. Cohen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 104. 2. RA 17.165a; i.i8ab. Cf. RU 15.50 (cited in Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 31 n. 2), which describes the knower of mercury (rasavid) and the knower of the soul (dtmavid) as the two "subtle seers" (suksmadarsinau). One may choose to see a precur sor to this twofold method in the Caraka Samhitd's (6.1.16) reference to the two complementary elixir therapies (rasdyanas), i.e., kutipravesa and vdtdtapika, "[the practice of] wind and sun": Rosu, "Consideration," p. 7. On kutipravesa, see above, chap. 2, nn. 47-48.
Chapter Nine 1. Padoux, Vac, pp. 82, 124-26; Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 19-24, 52-53, 64-66. The human body is the turning point of another important medieval metaphysical system. This is the Neoplatonist emanation and participation of John Scot's "Divi sion of Nature," in which the return towards cosmic wholeness begins, after the
3. ausadhyo 'dhyatmakasceti rajayogo dvidha kvacit / hatho 'pi dvividhah kvapi vayubindunisevanat. Cf. RA 4.23, which calls for the conjoined use of botanicals and mantras. 4. Sahara's commentary to Jaiminiya Sutra 3.1.3 and Tantravdrttika, p. 1078, cited in Pandey, Hindu Samskdras, p. 16, who also gives many specialized uses of the term. Cf. Caraka Samhita 1.26.30. See also Kapani, Notion desamskara, passim. 5. See RA 1.36 on siita; RRS 1.79-80 on divine jealousy as ground for the al chemical samskdras; and Pandeya's introduction to the BhP (Goraksa Samhita, vol. 2, p. gha), for a commentary. See Manu Smrti 2.27 and Ydjnavalkya Smrti 1.13 on the rites of passage. Cf. Kapani s discussion: Notion de santskara, vol. 1, pp. 89-94. See above, chap. 7, sec. 2, on origin myths of metals, in which gold is accompanied by various metallic "afterbirths." 6. The figure of eighteen alchemical samskdras is reached by taking the classic number of sixteen sarnskdras (cf. Siddhinandan Misra's commentary to the discus sion of the samskdras in the RC preceding 4.85, on p. 54.) and adding to these the resulting processes of transmutation and bodily transubstantiation. The Vaikhdnasa Smdrta Sutra is a source that lists eighteen life-cycle sarnskdras: Kapani, Notion de samskara, vol. 1, p. 86; for a figure of sixteen, see Mrgendrdgama, Kriya 6.9-11 (cited in Gonda, Medieval, p. 171). See above, chap. 2, sec. 4. 7. The eighteen samskdras are listed in RHT 2.1-2. Succinct descriptions are found in RC 4.85-106. This material is copied, for the most part, by the RRS (8.6288), which also lists them in 11.15-16. A synoptic table of the samskdras, taken from fifteen major alchemical sources, is given in Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 212-13. An adequate English-language description of the mechanics of the eighteen sam skdras is given by Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, pp. 320-22. Subbarayappa's informant was Dr. Damodar Joshi, of the Rasasastra De partment of the Ayurvedic College of Benares Hindu University. Dr. Joshi was also my principal informant on such matters, during my stay in Benares, from August to January 1984 and in March 1985. 8. Gheranda Samhita 1.9-11.
m Notes to Chapter Nine 9. Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 94-96, 198-99; and Dash, Alchemy, pp. 91-92, 185-86. 10. On this distinction, see Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 211. 11. The process of miircchana is described in RRS 11.35. The properties of swooned mercury are described in RA 11.199. 12. On this distinction, see Dash, Alchemy, pp. 92-93; and Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 248. 13. The RRS is the most systematic source on bandhana, which it defines (8.66; 11.60); it also gives a list (11.61-64) and practical descriptions (11.65-112) of the twenty-five means for fixing mercury. Cf. Misra, Ayurvediya, pp. 300-21. 14. Specific procedures for the killing of mercury are given in RRS 11.113-21; 30.1-21. The powers and properties of killed mercury (bhasmasiita, mnasutakd) are given in RA 1.22 and 11.200; and RM fol. 98.2-3. The RA (12.82) and RC(i.i6) stipulate that mercury, as the semen of Siva, is not truly killed when reduced to ashes, but merely "greatly swooned." On the killing of other metals, see Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, pp. 325-26, citing RRS 5.13 and/ttTT 9.16. 15. This process has been discussed at length in chap. 8, sec. 3. 16. RRS 11.47-48. The salt in question, called ambuja ("water-born") or saindhava ("from the Sindhu [Indus River] region"), is said to have arisen from a combi nation of "male and female sexual emissions and the menstrual blood of a forbidden woman": Sharma's commentary to RRS 11.48 (p. 167), citing the Rasavatara. 17. RRS 11.49. Cf. Dash, Alchemy, pp. 63-64. 18. RRS 11.51-52. Cf. Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 235. 19. RRS 11.59. Cf. Dash, Alchemy, p. 65. The first eight samskaras are treated summarily in RHT 2.1-20. 20. RRS$.72. 21. RRS 8.80-85. Dash, Alchemy, pp. 65-73. The RHT devotes all of its third chapter to grasa, its fourth chapter to carana, its fifth chapter to garbhadruti, and its fifteenth chapter to bahyadruti. 22. The alchemist knows he has reached the stage of jarana when the mercury no longer increases in weight after absorbing a given mineral substance: ibid., p. 73. Chapter six of the RHT is devoted to jarana. 23. RRS 8.87; RHT 8.1-19. Indeed, the coloring of metals with mercury colored in this way may have been the greater part of so-called transmutation in this tradi tion: Subbarayappa, "Chemical Practice," in Bose, Concise History, p. 320. 24. RRS $.8%; RHT
I6A-}6.
25. RA 11.216-17; RHT 17.1-8. Neither the RC nor the RRS contains descrip tions of kramana.
Notes to Chapter Nine 26. Satapatha Brahmana 3.8.2.27: amrtam ayur hiranyam, literally "gold is nondeath; gold is longevity." Cf. Satapatha Brahmana 7.4.1.15-17 and 13.4.1.7. 27. Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.2.13-26 and 7.3.1.16, discussed in Malamoud, "Briques et mots: Obervations sur le corps des dieux dans 1'Inde vedique," in Cuire le monde, pp. 262-63; an( ^ Kapani, Notion de samskara, vol. 1, pp. 58-71. Cf. White, "Dakkhina and Agnicayana," pp. 192-94, 212-13. 28. Satapatha Brahmana 7.2.2.7-19; 7.2.4.1-26; 7.3.1.9—11; and Apastamba Srauta Sutra 16.19.n-13, discussed in Charles Malamoud, "Cosmologie prescrip tive: Observations sur le monde et le non-monde dans 1'Inde ancienne," in Le tanps de la reflexion 10 (1989), pp. 320-21; idem, "Village et foret," in Cuire le monde, p. 101 n. 35; and Kapani, Notion de samskara, vol. 1, pp. 63-65. 29. Malamoud, "Cuire le monde," in Cuire le monde, pp. 60-62. 30. Aitareya Brahmana 1.3. Diksa is defined as tattva-suddhi, "purification of the constituent elements," in Kaviraj, Bharatiy, 1:282. 31. Maitri Upanisad 2.5; Manu Smrti 8.96; 12.12,14; Ydjnavalkya Smrti 3.178; Bhagavad Gitd 13.1-2; Caraka Samhita 4.1.65. Cf. Dasgupta, History, 1:214. Ksetra refers to the lower evolutes of Prakrti, feminine materiality, while ksetrajna is to be identified with male Purusa, spirit. 32. White, "Dakkhina and Agnicayana" pp. 205-6. 33. Personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, Benares, March 1985. See also Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 326, and above, chap. 2, sec. 2. 34. Zimmerman, "Rtu-Satmya," pp. 97-99. Cf. Sharma, Ayurved, pp. 276-77, 495-503. 35. RA 18.2-19; RRS 11.66. The alchemist's preparation in fact begins with his initiation, by a guru, into the alchemical arts. Once again, parallels—between hu man birth and the samskaras, as rites of passage, and the alchemical samskaras—are explicit: Pandeya's introduction to BhP (Goraksa Samhita, vol. 2), p. na. 36. Ayurveda Prakas'a 1.489, cited in Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 327. In preparing it for its ingestion, one is to nourish mercury itself with bijas of gold and silver: RA 8.16-22. Cf. KCM (London, Wellcome MSS no. g473) fol. 45.4-9, in which menstrual blood is used as an adjunct. On the ksetrasamskaras (garbhadana, pumsavana, and simantonnayana), see Manu Smrti 9.33, 36-38. In legal terminology, the surrogate male who fathers a child on a widow (ksetra) who has lost her husband (ksetrin) is called the "inseminator" (bijin): Gautama Dharma Sutra 28.30, cited in Kane, History of Dharmasastra vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 599, quoted in Gail Hinich Suther land, "Bija (Seed) and Ksetra (Field): Male Surrogacy or Niyoga in the Mahabharata," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s. 24 (1990), p. 78. 37. Joshi, "Notes," pp. 106-7; HT, p. 85; Kaviraj, Bharatiy, 1:279.
494
Notes to Chapter Nine 38. MBhT 10.3-4. The unity of Siva and Sakti is portrayed as that of seed (bija) and sprout (ankura) in a number of sources: Narharinath, Nav Nath Caurdsi Siddh (Benares: Rashtriya Press, 1968), p. 25 (v. 3). Cf. Kamakaldvilasa, quoted in Wood roffe, Serpent Power, p. 132. 39. There is a certain symmetry here between the father-son relationship of Agni-Prajapati and the guru-disciple relationship of Gorakh-Matsyendra: see be low, n. 74 of the present chapter. 40. HYP 2.23. Cf. Renou and Filliozat, Ulnde classique, vol. 2, p. 52. 41. HYP 2.22-38. This identification, of satkriya as the means to bodily bhuta suddhi, was confirmed for me in a personal communication from Mahant Avedyanath, Gorakhpur, January 1985. 42. Satapatha Brdhmana 7.2.2.18-20; 7.2.4.10. 43. This is clearly stated in Padmdvat 22.8 (= 219), in Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawati, p. 479, and Shirreff, Padmdvati, p. 134: "Now that you are a Siddha, you have obtained a state of purity (sudhi). The mirror (darpan) of your body has been cleared of dust." Cf. Svetdsvatara Upanisad 2.14. 44. HT, p. 81. Two texts entitled Bhutasuddhi Tantra may be found, in edited form, in the Tantrasamgraha, vol. 3, pp. 565-625; and vol. 4, pp. 308-16. 45. Jaggi, Yogic and Tantric Medicine, p. 117. The term may originally have re ferred to the casting out of "beings" or "spirits" inhabiting the area upon which the ritual was to be performed. Bhuta at once means "element" and "spirit": Van Kooij, Worship, p. 21. Cf. BhP 7.368-74. 46. Descriptions of outer and inner bhutasuddhi are found in Kalika Purana 52.18-19; 53.13-14; 57.93-108 (in B. N. Shastri, Kdlikdpurdna [text, introduction, and translation into English], 2 vols. [Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1991], vol. 2, pp. 751, 756, 816-19). (The same passages, with different chapter and verse numbering, are translated in Van Kooij, Worship, pp. 45, 166). Cf. HT, pp. 136, 140, 143; San derson, "Mandala," pp. 174-75; and Woodroffe Principles of Tantra, 2:477 (cited in Walter, Role ofAlchemy, p. 70). 47. Kalika Purana 55.21-35 (in Van Kooij, Worship, pp. 45-46) gives a detailed description of the divinity who is to be projected upon this empty space. Cf. Mahdnirvdna Tantra (ed. Woodroffe), pp. 76-77; Bharati, Tantric Tradition, p. 246; Gupta, HT, pp. 136, 140, 143; Sanderson, "Mandala," pp. 174-75; a n ^ Wheelock, "Mantra in Vedic and Tantric Ritual," in Alper, ed., Mantra, p. 121. Compare RA 18.208-210. On a Theravada Buddhist precursor of this technique, see Paul Mus, "La notion de temps reversible dans la mythologie bouddhique," Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Annuaire 1938-1939 (Melun: Imprimerie Administrative, 1938), pp. 30-31.
495
Notes to Chapter Nine 48. Tantravdrttika, p. 1078, cited in Pandey, Hindu Sarnskdras, p. 16. Cf. Kapani, Notion de samskdra, vol. 1, pp. 89-94. 49. Sodhana is derived from the same root as suddhi, in bhutasuddhi. Apart from the first eight sarnskdras, relatively pure mercury may be obtained through extrac tion from cinnabar (in the vidyddhara yantra, through the process of distillation, pdtana: see above, chap. 8, sec. 3), and a number of simpler methods. Svedana is described in RA 10.41; RHT 2.3; RC 15.36; and RRS 8.62; 11.29. 50. HYP 2.12, 19. This process is widely reported in sources (quoted at length in Brahmananda's commentary on 2.12) that range from the Ydjnavalkya Smrti to the Linga Purana. Cf. Caraka Samhitd 6.15.29-30 (cited in Dasgupta, History 2:326) on the body's natural voiding of waste products through the bodily orifices and pores. The KJnN (1^1) calls the first of a list of five sets of Kaula schools "Starting at the Pores" (romakupddi). 51.HYP2.1}. 52. Yoga Sutra 1.2 reads yogas' cittdvrtti nirodhah, of which the most generally accepted and elegant translation is "yoga is the suppression of the states of con sciousness." 53./YIT1.56. 54. The most succinct rendering is found in RA 1.19: for variant readings in other works, see above, chap. 5, nn. 145, 161, 218, 222, 237. 55. The verse is found in HYP 4.27, in which the Sanskrit reads: murcchito harate vyadhln mrto jivayati svayam/ baddhah khecaratam dhatte raso vayusca parvati. Cf. RA 1.19: murcchito harate vyadhim mrto jivayati svayam/ baddhah khecar atam kuryat raso vayusca bhairavi. 56. Raja rani sambdd, v. 18 in Dvivedi, Nath Siddom, p. 9. Statements of this kind are legion in the hathayogic sources. Cf. HYP 2.2 and 4.28 for a more sober formu lation. 57. HYP4.26, 28; RA 2.117-18. Cf. RA 1.20-22, the verses immediately follow ing the classic statement of 1.19. 58. Gorakh Bant Sabadl 142. Cf. SabadT 238 and RA 2.117-18. 59. RA 11.197. The seven forms—murcchita, mrtasuta, jalukabandha, muttibandha, pattabandha, bhasmasilta, and khotajbandha]—are described in n.198-208. RA 10.29 establishes a metaphorical, if not literal, identification between various forms of treated mercury and Hindu divinities: "Through the power of the Work (karmayogabaldt) mercury takes the form of Brahma when it is purified (drota); (Visnu) Janardana when it is swooned (murcchita); and Rudra when it is bound (baddha). Other sources (RRA i.i.i2a-i3a, RM fol. ia.8-10; Rasasindhu, ASL MSS no. 4267, fol. 1.5) follow this enumeration, adding other hypostases of Siva (Mahes-
496 Notes to Chapter Nine
497 Notes to Chapter Nine
vara, Sadasiva, Isana) to their lists to correspond to further transformations of
168-69; 6.176; 8.81; 9.81; and RC 16.44, 52-55> 75- ^ e e a ' s 0 above, chap. 7, n. 166. 70. RV 10.113.6, cited in Jean Varenne, Cosmogonies vediques (Milan: Arche,
mercury. 60. HYP 2.7-9,35. The final member of the first of the six preliminary practices of yogic purification (the satkanndni), called agnisara ("the coursing of the inner fire"), involves a similar body of practices which are said to activate the five inner fires (of digestion, etc.). In agnisara, one is to repeatedly fill and empty the abdomen of air, after the fashion of a blacksmith's bellows: Renou and Filliozat, Ulnde classique, vol. 2, pp. 52-53. 61. HYP 2.69. HYP 3.12, calls the outer nddls "lifeless"; 3.73 says they are "para lyzed"; and 3.74 calls them "bound," all synonyms for "swooned." See below, n. 89. 62. Brahmananda's commentary to HYP4.27. Murcchana has a number of other meanings, including "swelling," "coagulation," "assuming shape," which together lead to an image of a bruise which, taking shape as it swells, becomes deadened to touch: Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "march." 63. HYP 3.55-60. Uddiyana is also the name of one of the four original pithas of both Buddhist and Hindu tantrism. In the Nath Siddha system of the nine cakras (which alternates with the 6 + 1 cakra system), uddiyana (here called odyana) is lo cated at the level of the second cakra, the svadhisthana: SSP 2.2. 64. HYP 3.70-73. Jalamdhara is also the name of one of the four original pithas, located in the Nath Siddha system of the nine cakras at the level of the brahmarandhra-nii-vana cakra, the eighth cakra identified with the fontanelle: SSP 2.8. The Nath Siddhas locate the two other original pithas, Kdmarupa and Pimiagiri, at the lowest and highest cakras, respectively: SSP 2.1, 9. The form of diaphragmatic re tention called murccha, discussed above (n. 60) in fact combines breath retention with the jalamdhara bandha: HYP 2.69. 65. H I T 4.26. 66. On the seven types of alchemical bandhas, see RPS 2.2, and above, n. 59. The verse concerning the raksasa named Method is RA 12.3, and the commentary is from the glossary to Tripathi's edition, p. 373. 67. See above, chap. 8, n. 220. 68. Gorakh Bam SabadI 88. Cf. //KP4.91, which calls the nada an elephant goad for stabilizing the wild elephant of the mind. This passage is the first of a series of nine verses (HYP 4.91-99) which metaphorically compare the effects of the nada on the mind to all manner of immobilization in nature and culture. In Saiva ritual, the ankus'a mudrd (a fist with the index-finger bent in the form of a hook) is em ployed to generate nectar from within the subtle body: Gonda, Visnuism, p. 180. 69. The notion dates back to Atharva Veda 11.4.21. On clipping the wings of the cosmic goose, the hamsa, see Carpati jl kl sabadi 47, in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 17; and WKP4.92. On the clipping of mercury's wings, see RHT4.5; BhP 5.148,
1982), p. 114.
71. The myth of Gorakh's binding of the nine serpent clouds is related in the ca. A.D. 1820 Sri Nath Tirthdvali of Man Singh, w. 330-36 and Levi, Le Nepal, vol. 1, pp. 351, 372, citing the "lost" Nepali Buddha Parana. This binding may be a reference to the nine cakras of a system described in Gorakhnath's SSP (2.1-9). More likely, it refers to a commonplace of Siddha literature, that through a given practice, one becomes more powerful than nine serpents: KCM fol. 20a.8; BhP (ASL MSS 4401, fol. 3b.49). The RA (12.314) raises this figure to ten. 72. HT, p. 53, citing Paramdnhasdra 1.15; and Kaviraj, Tdntrik Vanmay, p. 58. 73. Yogabija 52: chedabandhairmukto. Cf. Abhinavagupta's praise of Matsyendra as one who "tore apart the glowing net," in TA 1.7. Lee Siegel's delightful Net of Magic is a wide-ranging discussion of this entire symbol system. 74. KJnN 17.33-37- Cf. Gorakhnath's statement that "bound in the noose [of Death] one becomes a living creature. Freed from the noose, one becomes Sada siva": Sahagal, Gorakh Darsan, p. 107 (without citation). The Parasurdma Kalpa Su tra (1.5) makes a nearly identical statement. Tantrics also have the power to kill. This one of the "six acts" (satkannani) of tantric black magic is called marana: HT, P- 35 75. HYP 4.17. On the three knots, W P 4 . 7 0 , 73, 76. 76.//KP4.94. 77. Yogamartanda 180, in SSP, p. 71; Yogabija 52; and HYP 3.24. Cf. HYP4.108, which states that the realized yogin is not bound by karma, not eaten by time, and is beholden to no one; and Gorakh Ban! Sabadi 85, which makes a similar statement in the context of what it calls the andhat bandh, the "lock of the unstruck [sound]." See also Akulaviratantra [B] 30, 49-50, 65, in Bagchi, KJnN, pp. 96-99. The avadhiita is one who has thrown down (ava-dhu) the bonds of existence: NSC, p. 126. Cf. SSP 6.1. 78. Death (named Yama or Kala) carries a noose, as does the divine enforcer of order and binding contracts, Varuna. The latter, as a first-function god, is a special ist in invisible binding weapons, not unlike the Scandinavian Odin who ensnares enemies on the field of battle with his invisible fetters. The bonds of death are an Indo-European theme, on which see Bruce Lincoln, "Mithra(s) as Sun and Savior," in Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), especially pp. 78-81. On kdlavancana, see HYP 3.3; KJnN [ 17.17; KCM (ASL MSS no. 3952) fol. 318.3, 31D.2. 79. Gopicandrer Gdn, summarized in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 227. Gorakhnath does the same: Goraksa Vijaya, pp. 45-48, cited ibid., p. 222.
49*
Notes to Chapter Nine 80. Gopicandrer Pdncali, p. 345, translated in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 226. 81. Gopicandrer Sannyds, p. 418, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 215. 82. Ernest Trump, The Adi Granth (London: 1877), p. xl, cited in Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 203. Cf. Padmdvat 129 [=12.1] for an extended description of a fully equipped Nath Siddha; and Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 6-23 and Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 15-21, for discussion. 83. The wavering mind is itself compared to a gazelle in the HYP (4.94, 99), a metaphor dramatized in the legend of Gorakh's disciple Bhartrhari: Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 132. 84. Gorakh Bant SabadI 48a, in which the kantha is identified with the five ele ments. Cf. the Jain legend of KanthadI, a disciple of Gorakh, who transfers the heat of a fever (or his yogic energy) into his kantha: Prabandha Cintdmani, pp. 22-23, cited in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 51. 85. On dying to the world and performing one's cremations rites, see Pandurang Vaman Kane, History of Dharmas'dstra, 5 vols. 2d ed. (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Institute), vol. 2, part 2, pp. 954-55, 985. On the prdnagnihotra, see Vaikhdnasa Smdrta Sutra 2.18. This tradition goes back to the Taittiriya Aranyaka: Madeleine Biardeau and Charles Malamoud, Le Sacrifice dans I'Inde Ancienne (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1976), pp. 67-68. A Prdnagnihotra Upanisad, a compi lation of earlier Upanisadic descriptions of this practice, is found in Deussen, Sixty Upanisads, 2:645-51. Because the renouncer has performed his own cremation rites upon taking up sannydsa, his body is not burned, but rather inhumed or set adrift, upon its apparent "death." On this see Paingala Upanisad 4.5-8, cited in Kapani, Notion de samskdra, vol. 1, p. 153. 86. RA 1.19. The optimum fixation (bandha) of mercury, effected through its "assimilation" in female sulfur and mica, leaves it in an ashen state {bhasmikrta) in which it has been rendered "lifeless" (nirjiva: in opposition to the quite useless sajiva-bandha, which leaves mercury subject to evaporation and has little medical use: RRS 11.75), i.e., completely immobilized and impervious to heat and thereby most effective against disease: RRS 11.76. 87. Gorakh Rani SabadI 26: marau be jogl marau, maran hai mltha/ tis maranirn marau jis maranirn goras mari dltha. Cf. Yogabtja 57-583, and Kabir, Sdkhi 19.13 (= Doha 41.8), in Vaudeville, Kabir, p. 260. 88. Padmdvat 24.2, in Grierson and Dvivedi, Padumawdti, p. 530. 89. Amaraugha Prabodha 40D-41, which is nearly identical to HYP 3.27D-28. I have translated the problematic jdniydt in this passage as a gerundive. The fourth state of consciousness is called either murcchd or turiya ("trance"). A fifth may be added. This is marana, "death": commentary to English translation of H I T 4.107, p. 107.
499
Notes to Chapter Nine 90. HYP 3.4. In classical Indian thought as well, one enjoys one's "third" and most glorious birth, this time in heaven, when one's corpse has been incinerated in the cremation fire: Satapatha Brdhmana 11.2.1.1. 91. On vajroli, see above, chap. 7, nn. 90-102. Sahajoliand amaroli are described in HYP 3.92-98. These practices appear to be connected to the broader tantric ritual practice of amrtikarana, which involves the identification of ashes, water, and nectar: on this practice, see Gonda, Visnuism, pp. 72, 180. 92. See RA 12.79 o n t n e s t a t e o r " m e question. It is also called bhasma-nirmana pdrada: MBhT5.1. See above, n. 14. 93. RA 7.142. Personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, Benares, March 1985. 94. An early example is Vdjasaneyi Samhitd 40.15: "Now my breath is the im mortal wind, my body is bhasma," cited in David Knipe, "Night of the Growing Dead: A Cult of Vlrabhadra in Coastal Andhra," in Alf Hiltebeitel, ed. Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of Popular Hinduism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989). 95. Maitri Upanisad 6.15. 96. Malamoud, "Village et foret dans l'ideologie de I'Inde brahmanique," in Cuire le monde, p. 102; and Kapani, Notion de saynskdra, vol. 1, p. 60 n. 34, citing Satapatha Brdhmana 6.2.2.6; 6.3.1.1.; and 6.5.3.1. 97. Goplcand's statement (in Temple, Legends of the Panjdb, vol. 2, p. 48 [legend no. 18, w. 499-500) reads kachd bartan hovejidhar phere phirjde/ham to jogi hue guru nediepakde. Cf. Svetdsvatara Upanisad (2.12), which states that a body fired by yoga (yogdgnim mayam sariram) cannot be reached by either sickness, aging, or death. Whence also the invocation to Agni and the gods, "May we be well cooked!": RV 9.83.1. Cf. Siva Samhitd, 2.32-34; and Yogabtja 34-35, 51, 76, which distinguishes between a body that is "cooked" or "fired" (pakvd) by yoga and one that is not (apakvd); and evokes a "seven-dbdtu body fired in the fire of yoga." 98. Here we are paraphrasing the formulation of Benjamin Walker, Hindu World, s.v. "ashes." 99. On the Pasupatas, see Lorenzen, "Saivism: Pasupatas," in Encyclopedia ofReli gion, vol. 13, p. 18. On vibhiiti, Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "vibhuti." On the consumption of ashes as a component of diksd, see Manu Smrti 6.25, 38. 100. Walker, Hindu World, s.v. "ashes." That is, Siva ejaculated at the sight of Parvatl, in which case the combination of elements which Siva smeared over his body evokes those of the amaroli mudra. 101. Mahdbhdrata 3.81.98-118; 9.37.34-50; Skanda Purdna 5.2.2.2-37; Padma Purdna 1.27.1-15; 5.18.132; Vdmana Purdna 17.1-22. A brief Mahdbhdrata
501
Notes to Chapter Nine
Notes to Chapter Nine
(13.17.92) reference to the same myth has Siva calling himself bhasmabhftta, "made of ashes": O'Flaherty, Siva, p. 245. 102. Brahmanda Purana 1.2.27.106b, io8ab, 109b, 1133b, 121a, 123a, 124b. 103. Kavya Usanas's poetic powers are hymned in /? I 7 9.87.3; a Brahmanic myth of his rivalry with Indra and the gods is found in Jaiminiya Brahmana 1.12 5-2 7. See O'Flaherty, Tales of Sex and Violence, pp. 87-90. 104. Georges Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, vol. 2, part 2, "Entre les dieux et les demons: un sorcier," pp. 161-66; 197-205, 208. The myth is found in Mahdbhdrata 1.71.2-1.72.25.
detail concerning milk and menses, is adapted into Hindi in Gautam, Sri Gorakh nath Caritra, p. 6. A Punjabi variant is briefly recounted in Rose, Glossary, p. 393. Another version of the same account, from the Tahqiqdt-i-Cisti, is cited in Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 182-83. NSC (p. 49) gives a north Indian version of this legend. 113. These specially prepared ashes are in fact twice calcinated, by virtue of which they take on their distinctive snowy-white color. On this process, see Bedi, Sadhus, pp. 78-79. 114. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 21. The present-day Gorakhnath temple complex of Gorakhpur houses both an eternal flame (akhandjyoti) and an eternal dhfini (akhand dhfma).
105. Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, 2:200-4. 106. On the alternation between kavi and Kavya Usanas's name, see Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 148-56, 204. On the incantatory element in Vedic healing, see Zysk, Religious Healing, pp. 8 and 241, citing Sayana's commentary to Atharva Veda 4.2.6. It should be recalled here that "magical alchemy" was an affair of Asuras: see above, chap. 3, nn. 35-40. On the alchemical kavi and the medical kaviraj, see above, chap. 1, nn. 49-50; below, chap. 10, sec. 5. 107. Knipe, "Night," in Hiltebeitel, Criminal Gods, pp. 149-50. In the Punjabi Hills cults of the Seven Sisters, the term pindt is applied to "a lump of stone, some what resembling a Siva-linga" that are manifestations of the Goddess herself: Erndl, Victory to the Mother, p. 66. An extensive discussion of the term pinda is found in Kapani, Notion de samskara, vol. 1, pp. 129-37. 108. See above, chap. 7, n. 98 on the -oli suffix; and chap. 8, n. 194, on the relationship between the Naga suborders of the Dasnami sects and the Nath sampradaya. On ashen golds carried by the former, see Sadananda Giri, Society and Sannyasin: A History of the Dasanami Sannyasins (Benares: n.p., 1976), p. 26. 109. The alchemical texts generally keep the reading gutikd; however, see RA 12.330 for gulika. See Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. "guda." 110. Pir Premnath, Siva-Goi-aksa, pp. 29, 61. i n . Siva-Goraksa, pp. 29-34, 3^. 41-46. Throughout his account, Premnath identifies Vicarnath with Bhartrhari. The Sri Nath Tirthavali of Man Singh (v. 364) relates that Bhartrhari revived a dead child (whom this source names Siddha Kayanath) in a cave within "Gorakh Tilla" which, although it is usually identified with the prestigious Nath Siddha monastery of of Sialkot (Jhelum dist., Punjab, Paki stan), is located by this author at Pharphing, in the Kathmandu Valley (an A.D. 1393 inscription at this site states that Goraksanatha's sandals were established there by Acintanatha; Tibetan traditions identify this figure with Matsyendra: Bagchi, introduction to Kaulajnananhiiaya, p. 23)! 112. Levi, LeNepal, vol. 1, pp. 351, 372 citing the Buddha Purana; and Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 47, citing the YSA. This latter account, which includes the
115. On Gorakh's initiation, see Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 19. On Carpati's conception from Gorakh's langoti water and Guga's conception from ashes given by Gorakh to his mother, see NSC, pp. 193, 256. Gorakh initiates Puran Bhagat with ashes: Temple, Legends, 2:445-46. 116. Temple, Legends, 2:436-37; William Crooke, "A Version of the Guga Leg end," Indian Antiquary 24 (1895), pp. 52-53; Gautam, Sri Gorakhnath Caritra, p. 106; NSC, p. 276. 117. Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, pp. 390-2; Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh" Vis'esdnk, p. 90. On the calcinating breath of the cosmic serpents, see Temple, Legends, vol. I, p. 177 (legend no. 6 ["Guru Gugga"], v. 641). 118. Above, chap. 8, sec. 4. 119. HYP 1.27, 48; 2.66; 3 . i n , 115; 4.10, 11, 19. Somananda, in his Saktivijiiana, uses the term utthapana (w. 12-13) for the act of raising the kundalini; and bodhana (w. 14-15) for the subsequent act of causing the kundalini to pierce the granthis of Brahma, Visnu, Rudra, and enter into Isvara, who is found between the eyebrows, and finally into Sadasiva, via the brabmadvara: Silburn, Kundalini, p. 113. 120. Padoux, Vac, pp. 86-121 (especially p. 87, citing Sarada Tilaka 1.7-8) de scribes this interaction at length. See Gonda, Medieval, p. 186 (citing Mrgendrdgama, Kriyapada 1.2); and Silburn, Kundalini, p. 3 for alternative terminology. 121. HT, pp. 174, 177. On the Kaulavalinirnaya of Jfiananandagiri Paramahamsa, see HTSL, p. 144. For a discussion of the related term nirodhini'm the mantrie practice of chapter 21 of the pre-ioth c. Netra Tantra, see Padoux, Vac, pp. 103-4. Suppression (nirodha) is used as a synonym for pranayama in HYP 2.2 and Gorakh Bani Sabadl 82, 92. 122. Lilian Silburn, "Le vide, le rien, l'abime," in Le Vide: Experience spirituelle (Paris: Hermes, 1969), pp. 30-33. This technique, also known to Mahayana Bud dhism, was transmitted via China to the Japanese Zen masters, where it took the form of the koan. 10.11: jiiraniid ba?tdhana?n bhavet.
Notes to Chapter Nine 124. RA 11.50-54. 125. RA 11.12: grdsam grhna mama prabho. 126. On the successive absorption by mercury of six times its mass of mica, see RA 11.70-73. More recent sources (Rasacintdmani 5.73) suggest that sulfur should be used before mica in this process: Misra, Ayurvediya, p. 243. In modern practice, sulfur, rather than mica, is used: Ray, History, vol. 2, pp. xliii-xliv; and Dash, Al chemy, p. 100. It should be noted here that mercury has six times the atomic weight of sulfur and that synthetic cinnabar is composed of 84% mercury and 16% sulfur: personal communication from Damodar Joshi, Benares, March 1985. 127. RA 11.98-106. 128. Personal communication from Damodar Joshi, Benares, August 1984. Cf. Dash, Alchemy, p. 100. 129. Gorakh Bani Sabadi 252a. Cf. Sabadl 13b, in which the yogin is enjoined to absorb (jarandm) [his mind] in [the words issuing from] his guru's mouth. 130. This practice, dramatized in the legend of Mastnath (Sankarnath, SriMastndth Carit, pp. 109-10), has for its outward correlate the playing of the singndd, the antelope's horn worn by Nath Siddhas, which is made to emit a (barely aud ible) sound by blowing: Veronique Bouillier, "La caste sectaire des Kanphata JogT dans le royaume du Nepal: l'exemple de Gorkha," in Bulletin de I'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient 75 (1986), p. 147. 131. Gorakhnath mentions (Gorakh Bant, Sabadi 85) the anahat handh, a power ful lock presumably effected at the level of the heart, by which the yogin is ren dered invulnerable. 132. HYP 4.85-86. 133. HYP 4.100. 134. baddham vimuktacancalyam nadagandhakajaranat/ manah paradam apnoti niralambakhyakhe 'tanam. 135. RRS 11.78. 136. HYP 1.17,27. 137. A mdtra (4 seconds) is defined as the time it takes for a sleeping man to breathe in and out once: six of these are a pala (Yogacintdmani, cited by Brahmananda, in his commentary to HYP 2.12). Alternatively, it is the time it takes to circle the knee three times with the palm of the hand, and then snap one's fingers (loc. cit., citing Yajnavalkya Smrtt). Geometric progressions of hathayogicpalas are found in Amanaska Yoga 1.50-98; the relation between temporal duration and the successive stages of Patanjala yoga are also described in Brahmananda's commen tary to HYP 2.12. See below, chap. 10, nn. 57-58. 138. £ 4 18.56-60.
5°3 Notes to Chapter Nine 139. Maitri Upanisad 6.28; Gorakh Bani Sabadi 33, 215. 140. Khakhar, "History," p. 49. 141. Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, Archaic Techniques ofEcstasy, tr. Willard R. Trask (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). 142. Although most traditions make Goplcand a king in Bengal, the oldest re censions of his song cycle appear to be from Nepal: Mukherji, Gopicandra Nataka, p. xliv. 143. Legend cycles ofJalandhara (or Hadipa) and Goplcand are found in Bengal (Govindacandrer Gan, summarized in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, pp. 184-86), the Punjab (summarized in Rose, Glossary, p. 395, and Temple, Legends, 2:1-71 [legend 18]); and Rajasthan (Gold, Carnival, pp. 159-310). AMarwari recension is the Gop lcand ka Akhyan, ed. Sridhara Sivalal (Bombay: Jnan Sagar, 1890). The Bengali Goplcand cycle intersects that of Gorakh's rescue of Matsyendra from the Plantain Forest, in the trilogy comprising of Goraksa Vtjaya, Gopicandrer Gan, and Anila Purana: Mukherji, Gopicandra Nataka, p. xxxvi. Three bdnis, entitled Gopicandji ki Sa badi, Raja Rani Sambad, and Rag Rdmagri, offer fragmentary accounts of the Gopl cand legend: Dvivedi, Nath Siddham, pp. 6-11 (w. 47-125). 144. Kablr, in one of his Sakhis (4.8), refers to the KetakI (vernacular kevard; Latin Pandarnus odoratissimus), a fragrant shrub whose creamy colored flowers at tract bees: Vaudeville, Kabir, p. 179 and n. 7. 145. The motif is an archaic one, going back at least as far as the Kausitaki Brdhmana (6.1-2, translated in O'Flaherty, Hindu Myths, p. 31). 146. Grierson, "The Song of Manik CATL&XZ" Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 47 (1878), no. 3, pt. 1, p. 218, stipulates that she survived this ordeal by taking the form of a mustard seed (siddhdrtha). 147. Gopicandrer Pdncali, pp. 366-69; Govinda-candra-gita, pp. 71-73; Gopi candrer Gan, Bujhdn Khanda, pp. 87-130, summarized in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 226. 148. RA 18.228. 149. Temple, Legends, 2:23, cited in Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 194. NSC (p. 210) maintains that these effigies were made of the seven metals (sapta-dhdtu); other Bengali accounts say all three are made of gold (Mukherji, Gopicandra Nataka, p. xli). The Bengali Gopicandrer Git says merely that Kanha-pa made three Goplcand effigies: Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 186. 150. Another version, from the Punjab, states that Gorakh created a man from a blanket, who called himself "Goplcand" when Jalandharipa asked him who he was. The angry yogin reduced him to ashes seven times, after which the real Gopl cand was brought forward. Jalandharipa then declared that since he had not been consumed by fire, he should become immortal: Rose, Glossary, p. 395. Cf. the
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Marwari version, which states that Jalandhara reduced seven Goplcand effigies to ashes, after which he declared his disciple immortal: Sivalal, Goplcand ka Akhyan,
sariga was Caurarigi's surrogate father. The Punjabi legend recounted in Temple states that Puran Bhagat was conceived by Acchran "as soon as the Sun saw her" (v. 93)-
PP- 33-35151. Gorakh Bani Pad 34.5, glossed in Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh Bani" Visesank, pp. 282-83. Alternatively, he uses magic to restore these limbs, which his stepmother had cut off (see below, for an identical motif, in the legend of Puran Bhagat): Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 191. On a parallel, from the Tibetan Gmb thob, see above, chap. 4, n. 148. 152. Gorakh Bani, Pane Matra 21a, in Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh Bani" Visesank, p. 392; and Barthwal, Gorakh Bani, p. 221. 153. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 197. 154. Gautam, Sri Gorakhnath Caritra, pp. 14-16. 155. Ibid., pp. 96-97. 156. Ibid., pp. 59-62. 157. Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 72. 158. Ibid., p. 187. 159. The principal recensions of the Puran Bhagat/Caurariginath legend are those found in Temple, Legends, vol. 2, pp. 375-455 (no. 34); Swynnerton, Romantic Tales, pp. 411-41, both of which are Punjabi; and the twenty opening verses of the Pran Sankali of Caurariginath (in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, pp. 19-20), written in a medieval eastern Rajasthani dialect (ibid., p. 16 of the preface). It is also recounted byjfianesvara in his YSA (p. 372, cited in Dvivedi, Nath Sampraday, p. 177), and in Gautam, Sri Gorakhnath Caritra, pp. 81-89. 160. Asian Mythologies, s.v. "Turkish and Mongolian Shamanism," by Jean-Paul Roux; idem., "Le nom du chaman dans les textes turco-mongols, Anthropos 53 (1958), pp. 113-42; Diane M. Coccari, "The Bir Babas of Banaras and the Deified Dead," in Hiltebeitel, ed., Criminal Gods, p. 256; and William Crooke, Religion and Folklore of North India (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 319. Sialkot, the ancient Sakala, the venue of the Puran Bhagat legend, was the capital of the central Asian Hunas, the Ephthalite Huns, in the latter half of the first millennium: the Punjabi Jats, of which Puran Bhagat would have been a scion (Briggs, Gorakh nath, p. 239), are descended from this people. On this, see White, Myths of the DogMan, p. 120. The term bhagat is employed for the rasdhari actors whose troupe Gorakhnath joins to release Matsyendra from the clutches of the women of the Plantain Forest: Rose, Glossary, p. 394 [n.]. 161. Pran Sankali, in Dvivedi, Nath Siddhom, p. 19 [= v. 206]. On the Sarikh/ Salwan alternation, see Temple, Legends, 2:376, 378 [legend 34, w. 5, 28], who says in a note that Sarikh is Salwan's father. Gautam, Sri Gorakhnath Caritra (p. 82) calls the king Sasariga and maintains that Cauranginath was born from Siva's seed: Sa-
162. This he does in spite of Acchran's warning, which evokes a yogic notion of the body already discussed: "There are nine gates to the city, go not to the tenth, The tenth is the palace of thy stepmother, Nunan": Temple, Legends, 2:398 (w. 265-66). See above, chap. 8, sec. 4. 163. Luna, who is said in Temple's Punjabi recension of this legend (Legends, 2:392 [v. 187]) to be of the Chamari (currier) subcaste, is widely known as Lona (or Nona) Chamari, the most terrible sorceress of north India. She is said to have gained her powers by eating the corpse of Dhanvantari, the divine founder of In dian medicine, who had died of snakebite at the fangs of the great naga Taksaka: Crooke, Religion and Folklore, p. 437. Veiled references are given in Temple, Legends, 2:386 and 413 (w. 118-19, 441)- Curiously, Salwan is himself said to be the son of another great naga, Vasuki (Basak) in another version of this legend: Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 184. The Jain Prabandha Cintamani gives Nagarjuna a similar pedi gree: see above, chap. 4, n. 194. Nona Chamari is said to have belonged to an Islamic subdivision of the Nath sampradaya, that of the Ismail Jogis: Rose, Glossary, p. 396. 164. Temple, Legends, 2:408 (w. 383-86). 165. Ibid., 2:411 (w. 418-19). 166. Ibid., pp. 414-15 (w. 457-468). 167. Ibid., p. 417 (w. 498-502). 168. Ibid., pp. 419-20 (w. 517-33). It is Luna's maid, Hira ("Diamond"), who tests the blood. It will be recalled that Hira was the name of the sorceress who enslaved Goplcand for twelve years: see above, n. 149. 169. Ibid., p. 422-23 (w. 555-67). The well is so described in Narharinath, ed., Srinathkathasara, p. 18. 170. Temple, Legends, p. 426 (v. 604). Cf. Kabir, Sakhi 29.2 (in Vaudeville, Kabir, p. 290), quoted above, chap. 8, n. 115. 171. Temple, Legends, pp. 428-34 (w. 630-701). 172. Ibid., pp. 440-46 (w. 774-846). 173. Ibid., pp. 448-55 (w. 875-956). 174. See above, chap. 7, nn. 82-83, for alchemical allegory in the Padmavat. 175. Both s'ankha and [birwa] lona are also herbs used in alchemical operations: KCM fol. 128.9; and Padmavat 310 [= 27.3]. 176. On this forest, see above, chap. 8, sec. 2d. 177. This would parallel such Hindi constructions as dayalu, from daya, kindness (thus "kind"); or krpalu, from krpa, "mercy" (thus "merciful").
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Notes to Chapter Nine 178. Sachau, Alberuni'sIndia, vol. 1, p. 192. From here, the story takes a turn and becomes an account of the sack of Valabhl, related above: see chap. 4, nn. 200-202. 179. Sachau, Alberuni's India, vol. 1, pp. 191-92. Such traditions have remained common in the regions of the Sind and Kacch, on the western fringe of India, down to the 19th c : Madhihassan, Indian Alchemy, pp. 58-59. 180. Gorakh Bani, Pad 6.1-5 m Srivastav, "Gorakh Bani" Visesank, pp. 260-61. 181. This is the body that is rejuvenated through its calcination in the fires of yoga: cf. Kablr, Doha 46.64 (in Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali, p. 70). Cf. LalldVakyani 100, cited in Silburn, Kundalini, p. 45: "Give thou breath to the bellows even as doth the blacksmith. Then will thine iron turn to gold ..." The Vedic blacksmith's bellows are fanned with birds' wings: Maurice Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, trans. V. Srinivasa Sarma, 5 vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), 1:59. 182. ra[t]tika kam mase ki cori literally means "the work [or desire, or semen] of one ratts weight [is] the theft of one masa's weight." According to the weights and measures used in precious metalworking, 8 rath (the seed of Abrusprecatorius, 2V2 grains, 121 milligrams) equal one masa (lentil; one-twelfth of a tola). Below, in verse 5, the unit of one gadiyana is used: one gadiyana equals 6 mdsas and therefore 48 rath. Kablr makes poetic use of the terms ratti and tila (sesame seed, another unit of weight) in doha 35.7-8 (in Vaudeville, Kabir Granthavali, p. 56). 183. Because I have found it overly "spiritualized" (to the neglect of most of this poem's concrete referents), I have generally avoided the tika provided by Sri vastav and the Nath Siddha editors of the "Gorakh Bant" Visesank. Here, however, I find their commentary useful: the grain is the individual soul, into which the universal soul (the lentil's weight) has emanated. Gorakhnath, who has stolen his way into the universal soul, identifies himself with it and dwells within it, is lost in it. There is, however, another probable reading of this verse: The play of propor tions, of a grain acting on a mass eight times its weight, is a common alchemical phenomenon, in which an infinitesimal quantity of perfected mercury can trans mute up to a billion times its weight of base metals into gold. 184. Cf. HYP 4.56. 185. Here, the triadic void is the trikuti, the three-crested peak, located in the cranial vault, which is the culminating point of the three channels [nadis]. Alter nately, it is the downturned triangle from which the nectar of immortality the yogin has generated drips downward, thereby transforming his body. At this point, all of mundane existence, including the pure/impure opposition, has been transcended. 186. Unmani or unmana is a transcendent state of consciousness, located at the highest level of the subtle body. It is also a term which connotes equanimity, a pure
level of thought which is sometimes taken to be the homologue of samarasa. The gold that comes in (or "permeates"), by its very nature [sahaja], refers to the irresistable flow of refined semen realized at the end of one's hathayogic practice and to the effects of the alchemical touchstone, which transmutes all it touches into gold. Chapter Ten 1. K M Forster, The Hill of Devi (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965), p. 88. 2. In particular, it is the qjas, the fluid of life which exists, in extremely limited quantity in the heart, that is to be restored. See above, chap. 2, n. 44; and Anantacharya, Rasayana, pp. 20-21. 3. Gorakh BdniPad 6; 13.1; 50.2; Siv Goraks BavanI 38. 4. Gorakh Bani SabadI 60, 211; Pad 5.1; 15.1; BhP 5.260; 5.297. 5. See above, chap. 5, n. 113. 6. Alchemical and other uses of the root vedh likely remount to the metallurgical technique of amalgamation of mercury with gold for the extraction of gold from the ores in which it naturally occurs. The earliest such use of the term (rasaviddha) is found in the Arthas'astra of Kautilya (2.12.2). 7. On this relationship, see, for example, Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1.4.11; Mahabharata 12.72.9-12 and 13.8.21-22; Manu Smrti 8.37-39. There is a symmetry between the brahman-ksatriya relationship and that obtaining between the ksatriyas and the third varna, the vaisyas: Satapatha Brahmana 12.7.3.8. 8. Satapatha Brahmana 5.4.4.7-19. 9. The myth is related in Devibhagavata Purana 7.17.45-7.18.58 a n d Markandeya Purana 7.1-69; 8.1-270. For a discussion see White, Myths of the Dog-Man, pp. 80-86. 10. The Markandeya Purana version dates from the 3d~4th c. A.D. 11. The Canda-Kaus'ika, ed. Sibani Das Gupta (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1962). 12. Candakaus'ika 4.25ff. 13. Candakaus'ika 4.30-31. This is a slightly altered version of the old Buddhist set of eight siddhis. 14. Candakaus'ika 4.32, 34. 15. M. A. Stein, Kalhanas Rajataramgint, Chronicle of the Kings ofKashmir, 2 vols. (London: Constable, 1900; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), 1:102. 16. This is the third and final regnal period of Cakravarman. He had also ruled in A.D. 923-33 and during part of 935: Rajatarangini 5.288-92, 297-302. 17. Kanha-pa calls himself a Kapalika who dances with a Dombi (before killing
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Notes to Chapter Ten
her) in Caryapada 10 (in Kvaerne, Anthology, p. 113). On the Dombl as portion of the female sexual organ, see the A.D. 1446 Bengali commentary to the Laghu Kalacakratantra, reproduced in Shastri, Catalogue, vol 2, p. v. 18. Ucchista Cdndali ("Outcaste-Leftover") is a name for the tantric Goddess/ consort in a number of traditions: Apfel-Marglin, Wives of the God-King, p. 240. 19. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, 2:1196. See above, chap. 4, n. 240. 20. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, 2:107. This is portrayed graphically in 19th c. miniature paintings, found in miniatures held in the Jodhpur Fort Museum as well as murals on the outer walls of the shrine of the Mahamandir, of the Marwar king Man Singh together with his minister "Jalandharanath." In these miniatures, the king is standing or pictured in a subservient position to his Nath Siddha, who is seated, in conical cap, under the royal parasol. 21. Gorakhavamsavali, ed. Yogi Narharinath (Benares: Rashtriya Press, 1964), p. 95 (in Nepali): duvai hat thapnu bhayo ra uhi hatma dahi chadi lau sa bhanda. Cf. Nayaraj Pant, Sri 5 Prthivinarayan Sahko Upades (Lalitpur: n.p., n.d.), pp. 545, 641-42. This episode is graphically portrayed in a painting on the walls of the Nath Siddha monastery of Caughera (Srigau district, Dang, Nepal): personal communication from Veronique Bouillier, Paris, January 1993. A Hindi translation of this episode is found in Srivastav, ed., "Gorakh" Visesank, p. 338. The crucial phrase, in Hindi, is gorakhnathjt ne wabi dahi uski anjali mem mukh se ulat diya aur kaha ki isko khao. In the Hindi, the verb ulatna means both "vomit" and "reverse," as in the hathayogic ulata sadhana. This latter reading would imply that Gorakhnath drew the yogurt down to the base of his subtle body before reversing it and bringing it up out of his mouth. 22. For the historical reality and political intrigue behind this legend, see Vero nique Bouillier, "The King and His Yogi: Prthivinarayan Sah, Bhagavantanath and the Unification of Nepal in the Eighteenth Century," in John P. Neelsen, ed., Gen der, Caste and Power in South Asia: Social Status and Mobility in a Transitional Society (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1991), pp. 1-21. 23. Sachau, Albentnis India, vol 1, p. 180. 24. Stern, "Le temple d'EkhngjI," nn. 8, 19. This detail of Bappa Rawal's initia tion is not found in the 15th c. Sri Ekalinga Mahatmya. It is, however, related in Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 264-65. See above, chap. 4, nn. 226-27. 25. Mujtaba and Shah, "Taming of the Serpent," pp. 83-84. 26. Abhinavagupta's discussions of the various vedha diksas are found in TA 29.236-75. A partial English translation of the description of vedha-diksa is found in Silburn, Kundalini, pp. 91-103; a full Italian translation is in Raineiro Gnoli, Luce dellesacrescritture (Tantrdloka) (Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1972), pp. 708-12.
27. Kuldniava Tantra, 14.62-68, 78-79. 28. Sarada Tilaka 5.128-41. An English translation of this passage is found in HT, pp. 86-87. 29. Goraksa Sa?nhita, vol. 1, ed. Janardana Pandeya. The initiation is called vedhavati in 14.251-52 and loosely described in 14.254-74. This Sakta text also calls itself the Kadibheda Tantra: HTSL, p. 55 and n. 92. 30. TA 29.239-40, citing the Gahvara Tantra. 31. Sarada Tilaka 5.138b: tarn punarguruvaktre tu yojayed. See also above, chap. 7, n. 94; and chap. 8, nn. 213-15. 32. TA 29.271. 33. Sarada Tilaka 5.140. 34. Silburn, Kundalini, p. 95. 35. Tucci, "Animadversiones Indicae," pp. 138, 154: vaktrena vaktram dattva tadhrdi dhyanamukhamapurya vajrabhrta 'stottarasatamantritam krtva muhe muham dei mela [mukhe mukham dehi, me]. See also Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Bud dhism, vol. 1 pp. 254-62. 36. Sarada Tilaka 15.137b. The editor suggests two readings—vidhuvakkrantare and visnuvakkrantare—neither of which makes sense and which I amend to vidruvaktrantare. In the kaulaketu rite of the siddha marga, the guru's mouth is said to be "encased" or "interlocked" (samputa) in or with that of his disciple: KM (London, Wellcome MSS no. g5oi) fol. 353.7-8. 37. Yogakundali Upanisad 71-72, in Varenne, Upanishads duyoga, p. 132. These verses are borrowed directly from the KhV: the Yogakundali Upanisad is composed of the seventy-five verses of chap. 1 of the KhV, together with 164 "original" verses: Bouy, Nath Yogin, p. 41 n. 157. 38. Jonathan Parry, "Sacrificial Death and the Necrophagous Ascetic," in Mau rice Bloch and Jonathan Parry, eds. Death and the Regeneration of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 96, citing H. W Barrow, "On Aghoris and Aghoripanthis," Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay 3 (1893), p. 241. Cf. the Hevajra Tantra (2.12) description of a secret Indo-Tibetan Buddhist initiation ritual, in which the initiate is enjoined to eat the semen that his guru has shed in the pudendum of a "Wisdom Maiden": Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, vol. 1, pp. 258-59. 39. KJnN 18.22D-23C (the conclusion of its chapter on initiation): vaktradvaktram visesena siddhibhagyah samanyatha/ samanye kathitam kumbhe saiikhadvaktram visesatah. 40.1 am grateful to Alexis Sanderson for this reference. 41. rasendrena yatha viddhamayah suvarnatam vrajet/ diksaviddhastatha hyatma sivatvam labhate priye: Kularnava Tantra 14.89.
5"
Notes to Chapter Ten 42. Sddhanamdld (vol. 1, p. 82 of Bhattacharya's edition); TA 5.151; Pardparaprakdsika 9 and Bdsava Purana A.38.87 (both cited in Sadasiv Balwant Kulkarni, ed. and Marathi tr., Rasaratnasamucchaya, 2 vols. [Kolhapur: Sivaji University, 1970, 1972], vol. 1 [1970], pp. 23-24); Amanaska Yoga 2.48. 43. RA 17.164-65. See above, chap. 7, n. 21. 44. rasasca pavanasceti karmayogo dvidhd matah. 45. The "three fruits" are the fruits of three varieties of myrobalan; the "three hot substances" are dry ginger, long pepper, and black pepper; "rock water" is a naturally occurring mineral acid. 46. RA 12.331-37. 47. As a unit of weight, one pala equals eight tolas (RA 10.34b). A tola is slightly more than ten grams. Therefore a pala is 82.624 grams, or about three ounces. This value of the pala is calculated from equivalents given in RA 10.32-34. Other alchemical sources yield different equivalents. 48. Other alchemical texts make the same claim. See for example BhP 5.255, 7.224. 49. Amanaska Yoga 1.50-98, on tdraka yoga. Cf. Srivastav, "Goraksa" Vtsesdnk, p. 152.
50. As a measure of time, one pala equals one sixtieth of a gbatikd of twentyfour minutes, i.e., twenty-four seconds. 51. This ordering respects the hierarchy of the five elements, with their corre sponding senses. 52. The powers acquired between days fourteen and twenty-eight correspond to the eight classical Hindu siddhis. 53. This is Intellect, the second tattva or metaphysical category, according to Samkhyan thought. Purusa, the universal principle alone, is higher than this. 54.1 have arrived at this measure of mass by extrapolating data from the Bhdgavata Purana (3.11.5-6) and RA 10.32-338. According to the former source, two paramdnus make one anu, three anus constitute a trasarenu (or trisarenu), and three trasarenus equal one truti ("mote"—and one hundred trutis equal one vedha\); ac cording to the latter, six trutis equal one liksa ("nit"), six liksas one yuka ("louse"), sixyiikas one rajas ("pollen grain"), and six rajases one sarsapa (one mustard grain), which has the mass of approximately 0.004 grams55. Bhdgavata Purana 3.11.4. 56. Blaise Pascal, Les Pensees sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets (Paris: Edi tions du Luxembourg, 1951), pp. 134-39. Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995). A Hindu equivalent of this "restaurant" is the cosmological construct called Lokaloka ("World/non-World"), located at the outermost edge of the disk of the earth, within the cosmic Egg of
Notes to Chapter Ten Brahma. On this, see O'Flaherty, Dreams, pp. 204-5; and Malamoud, "Cosmolog ies prescriptives," pp. 307-17. 57. For definitions of this temporal unit, see above, chap. 3, n. 112, and chap. 9, n. 137. 58. Bhdgavata Purana 3.11.9-12, 16-22, 32. 59. For the tantric perspective on breath as the basis for all time reckoning, see Abhinavagupta, Tantrasdra, chap. 6 (pp. 46-57 of The Tantrasdra ofAbhinavagupta, ed. with notes by Mukunda Ram Sastri [reprint ed. Delhi: Bani Prakashan, 1982].) 60. For summaries of Gorakhnath's metaphysics, see Dvivedi, Ndth Sampraddy, pp. 114-26; and Aksaya Kumar Banerjea, Philosophy of Gorakhndth with GoraksaVacana-Sangraha, 2d ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983). 61. This notion is particularly transparent in Jndnakdrika (2.2b-4b), a text at tributed to Matsyendra (in Bagchi, KJnN, p. 116). Cf. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, trans, with an introduction by Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Washing ton Square Press, 1972), p. 56: "Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being—like a worm." 62. Gorakh BdniGyan Tilak 27-28, in Srivastav, "Gorakh Bant" Visesdnk, p. 362. 63. Mahdvedha is treated on p. 47 of this edition, whose versification is totally confused. It quite identical to the description given in the 15th c. HYP 3.26-31. For a similar quantification, this time of the progressive angas of Patanjala yoga, see Brahmananda's commentary to HYP 2.12. 64. Cf. Heimann's (Facets, pp. 95-100) discussion of the term sunya, which has many of the same valences in the Sanskrit language. 65. See the early Aitareya Upanisad 1.1-3.12, especially 3.11-12. This notion carries over into the tantric worldview, in which the endpoint of emanated creation is the adhah-kundalini, who enters the human microcosm through the fontanelle, to slumber at the base of the system of cakras, until she is awakened by yogic prac tice. On this, see above, chap. 8, sec. 1. 66. Stephen W. Hawking, A BriefHistory of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (New York: Bantam Books, 1988), pp. 81-113, especially p. 89, in which Hawking discusses the improbability of black holes issuing into "wormholes" in another part of space-time. 67. RA 18.217-20. 68. On sabdavedba, see RA 12.70 and RRS 8.95. On transmuting with bodily secretions, see Yogatattva Upanisad 74, and RA 18.28. 69. Gorakh Bani Sabadi 171a, 148: nlnjhar jharanaim ammlmras plvanam sat dal bedhya jai / . . . vyand him jog vyand him bhog vyand him harai causathi rog / ya bind ka kol jannairn bhev / so apaim karata apaim dev. 70. For a discussion of these texts, see above, chap. 5, sec. 2.
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Notes to Chapter Ten 71. Gorakh Upanisad, in Mallik, ed., SSP, p. 74, which suggests that the outer piercing of the ears is tantamount to the inner khecari mudra. Cf. Briggs, Gorakhnath p. 6, citing the testimony of Naths in Hardwar.
5'3 Notes to Chapter Ten
72. See above, chap. 8, nn. 213-15. 73. See above, n. 17. 74. Here, the mythic paradigm for the biological relationship between priestly teacher and disciple may go back to even pre-Vedic times. See above, chap. 9, n. 104. 75. Here I am following the alternative reading suggested in Tripathi's edition of the RA (p. 221 n. 1). in place of hariharamagabhirah, which makes no sense, the editor suggests the reading hariharasamavirah.
their vital fluids, through them. In Matsyendra's Akulavira Tantra (verse 78a of ver sion "A" on p. 91 of Bagchi's edition of the KJnN), it is said that "that which is difficult for divine Siddhas is easily accessible for the Yoginis." 84. KJnN 16.47-50; 24.4-12. On the "Naths of the Four Ages," of which Matsy endra is the fourth in this tradition, see above, chap. 5, n. 93. 85. Matsyendra's recovery of the Kaula teachings is described in chap. 16 of the KJnN: see above, chap. 8, sec. 2. Matsyendra appears to identify himself with "Siddhanatha," who revealed the akulavira doctrines to the world: Akulavira Tantra (A), w. i-2a; Akulavira Tantra (B), w. 39b, 142a. Cf. Jnanakarika 2.1 (in Bagchi, KJnN, pp. 94, 97, 106, 116). See above, chap. 3, n. 137. 86. KJnN 14.40, 55D-56, 63b-65b.
76. Kularnava Tantra 5.93. Cf. KJnN 11.21-23. 77. This theme is especially dear to the KCM, which devotes over a fourth of its content to techniques for attracting Siddha maidens, nymphs, goddesses, and females of every stripe into one's embrace. Similar themes are the frequent subject of the BhP: see above, chap. 5, n. 214.
87. Pasupata Sutras 1.33-38, quoted in Gonda, Medieval, p. 218; Candakausika (ed. Bhattacharya), pp. 109-11. Ksemlsvara's Kapalika alchemist is described as possessing eight siddhis that are quite identical to the eight Buddhist "magical pow ers": see above, chap. 3, n. 14. 88. Harsacarita 3.112-28.
78. On the Asura siddhi of rasa-rasayana, see above, chap. 3, nn. 34-40. On Kavya Usanas, see above, chap. 9, nn. 103-6. On the Bengali kavirajas, see Ro§u, "Lietard et Cordier," pp. lxxxiv-lxxxv. 79. KJnN7.21a, 14.18a, 26b; RA 12.337; KCM fol. 248.8; Goraksa Sataka 147b; KhV(NNA MSS no. 5-6568), fol. 9b, line 3; Siva Samhita 3.73. 80. On the alternation between kavi and Kavya Usanas's name, see Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 148-56, 204. On the incantatory element in Vedic healing, see Zysk, Religious Healing, pp. 8, 241, citing Sayana's commentary xoAtharva Veda 4.2.6. Cf. Padoux, Vac, p. 6. 81. The archaic cults of these beings go back to at least the first centuries of the common era, in Hindu and Buddhist traditions alike. The Siddhas and Vidyadharas are listed as beings "born from divine wombs" in the 6th c. A.D. Amarakos'a 1.1.11. See also Jean Przyluski, "Les Vidyaraja," Bulletin de I'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient 23 (1923), pp. 301-18; J. A. van Buitenen, "The Indian Hero as Vidyadhara," in Milton Singer, ed., Traditional India: Structure and Change (Philadelphia, American Folklore Society, 1959), pp. 99-105; and David Seyfort Ruegg, "Sur les rapports," p. 83. As Przyluski notes (p. 317), these demigods figure in the entourage of Siva (Gorakh) in Hinduism, and Avalokitesvara (Matsyendra) in Buddhism. 82. KJnN 8.30a. Italics my own. In his Yogabija (63), Gorakhnath speaks of Sid dhas through whose grace (krpa) one becomes a yogin. 83. KJnN 9.1. Yet, one is enjoined to worship the same three figures in 18.4b. The term yogini is employed both for human "witches" or "sorceresses" with whom tantric practitioners had commerce and for the goddesses to whom they offered
89. Ocean, vol. 2, p. 236. Mahavratin is a generic term for a Saiva ascetic—a Pasupata or Kapalika—referring as it does to the "great vow" (i.e., the slaying of a brahmin followed by twelve years of expiation) undertaken by them in their initi ation. 90. RM (Paris MSS no. 1222, fol. 28b.8-io; 298.1; Gondal MSS no. 861, fol. 36b.4~9). This passage is clearly an expansion on RA 18.208-28, discussed above, chap. 5, nn. 163-66. This apotheosis corresponds quite closely to the goal of the Pasupata, as described in the Pasupata Sutras: "(one) moves unobstructed every where; being equipped with these qualities one becomes the great chief of the ganas of Bhagavan Mahadeva." See above, chap. 4, n. 85. 91. £47.58. 92.MBAT7.36. 93. Siva Samhita 4.46; 5.202, 204. 94. For a complete account of this technique, as it is found in the RRS and other alchemical sources, see above, chap. 7, n. 109. g5.AKLI.61. 96. RA 12.252-58, especially 12.254 and 257. 97. RA 11.1040-106. Cf. 12.337. 98. RA 18.2220-227. Cf.Amanaska Yoga 1.98. 99. RA 18.228. See also RA 11.107: "There where the gods are absorbed [at the end of a cosmic eon], there too the Siddha is absorbed." In fact, three half-verses follow RA 18.228. Cf. Yogabija 65, which states whereas the three great gods pass away with the universal dissolution, the perfected yogin is indestructible.
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Notes to Chapter Ten ioo. See above, chap, i, note 13. 101. This is the text of an inscription in the Visvanath Temple at Benares Hindu University. Cf. RM fol. 8a.8; 26a.2; BhP 2.1; and RA 15.16: "Eaten, (mercury) ef fects the destruction of aging and poverty." 102. Caraka Samhita 6.1.78, 80. 103. Stein, "Jardins en miniature," pp. 53-55, 58. 104. Ibid., p. 57, citing the Yun-ki ts'i-tsein (cited in P'ei-wen yun-fou). 105. Ibid., p. 58; and idem, "Architecture et pensee en Extreme-Orient," Arts Asiatiques 4:3 (1957), pp. 176, 185. 106. Bhagavata Purana 5.16.7. This passage describes that portion of Meru which rises up from the earth's surface: a mirror image of this mountain extends below the surface of the earth, into the subterranean worlds of the demonic beings who inhabit them. The "lower half" of Meru is of lesser dimensions than the upper half, according to the Puranic texts. On this, see Ali, Geography, p. 48. 107. Ibid., p. 49; and I. W. Mabbett, "The Symbolism of Mount Meru," History of Religions 23 (1983), pp. 68, 71. The Bhagavata Purana (5.24.4) locates the Siddhas, Vidyadharas, and Caranas at the highest atmospheric (but not heavenly) level, im mediately below the spheres of the sun and Rahu, the "descending node" of the moon. See above, chap. 1, n. II. 108. Here, I concentrate on TA 8.119-38 (vol. 4, pp. 1441-51), with the com mentary of Jayaratha, who indicates selected passages borrowed from the Svacchanda Tantra (10.424-51). On the millennarian importance of this latter text and the cult of Svacchanda Bhairava in Kashmir, see Sanderson, "Saivism: Saivism in Kashmir," in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, p. 16. 109. Vajranka in TA 8.128, but vajrahga ("Lightning-Limbed") in SvT 10.446, which adds that the "lowest-level Vidyadharas are travelers on the winds of the mind (manahpavanagaminah)? n o . TA 8.133. The names of these Siddhas are [gojrocana, anjana, and bhasma. Gorocana is in fact an organic dye having the same intense yellow color as orpiment (auripigmentum). Gorocana is made from the urine of the cow. i n . SvT 10.452. "Love's body" is a siddhi enjoyed by the consummate alchemist (RA 12.366: madana ivasukantih) and yogin (see above, n. 53). 112. See above, chap. 3, n. 137, and chap. 8, n. 68. 113. The thirty-sixth and final chapter of the Tantraraja Tantra (pp. 115-21 of Woodroffe's edition), entitled "The Siddha," seems to second this account of the Siddhas, albeit in a rather tame way (p. 121): "The Siddha has prior (to death) been freed from (attachment to) the body . . . and whenever, wherever, and howsoever he may leave the body, he goes to the Good Path, for he was liberated whilst liv ing (jivanmukta)?
515
Notes to Chapter Ten 114. The "Raivatacala Mahatmya" constitutes chapters ten through thirteen of the Jain Satrunjaya Mahatmya (translated in James Burgess, Report on the Antiquities ofKathiawad and Kacch, Being the Result ofthe Second Seasons Operations of the Archaeo logical Survey of Western India, 1874-1875 [London: India Museum, 1876; reprint Delhi: Indological Book House, 1971], p. 157, note). See above, chap. 4, n. 213 for other Jain references to this site. 115. The bulk of the Matsya Purana is older than this; the praise of the Narmada River region in which Raivataka is mentioned is a late addition made by a Saiva resident of Maharashtra: Surinder Mohan Bharadvaj, Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India (A Study in Cultural Geography) (Berkeley: University of California Press, I0 73)> PP- 66-67; R- C. Hazra, Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Cus toms, 2d ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), p. 46; S. G. Kantawala, Cultural History from the Matsya Purana (Baroda: M.S. University, 1964), appendix III. 116. Skanda Purana 7.2.1-15 (on Girnar). On the dating of this Purana, and of book seven, the Prabhasa Khanda in particular, see Hazra, Puranic Records, p. 165. 117. Watters, On Yuan-Chwang's Travels, vol. 2, pp. 248-49; Beal, Su-yu-ki, vol. 2, p. 269. Hsuan-tsang's contemporary, the Indian author Banabhatta, describing a conclave of such "rishis," names the Pasupatas: Harsacarita 8.226. 118. On the identification of Raivata and Gomanta, see Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopedia (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), s.v. "Gomanta I." This is the first English edition, a translation of the original 1964 Malayalam edition. 119. Mahabharata 2.13.53 of the Bengali (Blm2_s) and Bombay Government col lection (D) manuscripts only. The critical reading is Bhavanta. Another peak men tioned in the Mahabharata has also been identified with Girnar: this is Ujjayanta, which the epic (3.86.18-20) describes as one of the holy places of Saurashtra (i.e., eastern Gujarat). The Mahabharata (2.42.8) names, without describing it, a Raiva taka Hill, which it also locates in Gujarat. The site has also been called Girinagara and Girinarayana, of which Girnar is a vernacularization. 120. On this king, one of the earliest mythic devotees of Rudra-Siva, and his use of mountain caves, see Dumezil, Mythe et epopee, vol. 2, pp. 96-105. 121. The passage concerning Gomanta is found only in the Bombay and Cal cutta recensions of the Harivamsa (2.40, entitled "The Climbing of Gomanta" or "The Journey to Gomanta"); in the critical edition, it forms a portion of appendix 17 and all of appendix 18, found in vol. 2, pp. 92-98 (lines 380-507). Cf. Mani, Puranic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Gomanta I." 122. Harivamsa, appendix 17, lines 381-82, 386. Girnar is a cluster of peaks, of which two twin crags, today identified by Hindus as Gorakh and Dattatreya, are by far the highest. Lines 390-91 state that Krsna and Balarama would later defeat Jarasandha at that site; the battle is drawn in line 487.
Notes to Epilogue 123. Harivamsa, appendix 18, lines 448-49. See above, n. 106, citing the later (post-6th c. A.D.) Bhagavata Purana (5.24.4), which gives a similar description of Mount Meru. 124. Burgess, Report, p. 159. 125. Girnar figures prominently in both the 13th c. YSA and the early 19th c. Natha Caritra of Man Singh, which devotes no less than fourteen chapters (1.2; 2.1-13) to the site and in particular to Goplcand's travels there. 126. Grierson, "The Song of Manik Candra," p. 209; Temple, Legends, vol. 2, P- 375127. Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 207; and Marie Lecomte-Tilouine, "Des dieux aux sommets (Nepal)," in Veronique Bouillier and Gerard Toffin, eds., Classer ks Dieux? Des Pantheons en Asie du Sud [Purusartha i5](Paris: EHESS, 1993), pp. 153-72, esp. pp. 159-62. 128. Punjab States Gazetteer, vol. 2 2A, Chamba State -with Maps, 1904 (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1910), pp. 183-84. 129. See above, chap. 4, n. 156. 130. The Hindu and Jain Vidyadharas had their Buddhist homologues in the Vidyarajas: Reugg, "Sur les rapports," p. 83. In the ManjusriMulakalpa, the bodhisattva Vajrapani, the foremost of the Vidyarajas, is iconographically placed to the left of Sakyamuni: Snellgrove, Buddhist Himalaya, p. 287.1 have noted (chap. 3, nn. 75-91) Nagarjuna's connection with Tara: as the leader of the Mahavidya god desses, she is called "Vidyarajm": Bhattacharya, History, p. 225. Epilogue 1. E. M. Forster, The Hill of Devi (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963), p. 65. 2. See above, chap. 3, n. 143. 3. See above, chap. 4, n. 156. 4. On this process in medieval Europe, see Jacques LeGoff, Pour un autre Moyen Age, Temps, travail et culture en Occident: 18 essais (Paris: Gallimard, 1977), p. 231.
5. Personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, Benares, March 1985. 6. Personal communication from Siddhinandan Misra, Benares, March 1985. A similar experiment, in which the production of gold from mercury was authenti cated by a recognized authority, C. P. N. Singh, is documented by S. N. Khandelwal in the 6-12 November 1983 edition of Saptahik Hindustan, pp. 41-44. 7. Sanjukta Gupta, "The Mandala as an Image of Man," in Richard Gombrich, ed., Indian Ritual and Its Exegesis (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 35. 8. Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, 2d Indian ed. (Bombay: Jaico, 1975), p. 70.
5'7
Notes to Epilogue 9. T. R. Anantharaman, "Transformations—Metallurgical and Mental," Prof. N. P. Gandhi Memorial Lecture, Varanasi, 18 December 1973, pp. 1—25. 10. Personal communication, 3 November 1984, Kathmandu. On this, see also Yogananda, Autobiography, p. 163. 11. Personal communications from Surya Kumar Yogi, Bhilbara (Rajasthan), March 1985; and Narharinath Yogi, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 1984. See Kakar (Shamans, p. 182) for names and descriptions of a number of similar illustrious figures. 12. Trevor Fishlock, India File (London: John Murray, 1983; reprint Calcutta: Rupa and Co., 1984), p. 36, quoting the advertising of a "sex clinic." 13. Tayumanavar, Vannam, unpublished translation by Swami Sevananda. 14. MBhTz.5-6; Susruta Samhita 1.14.14-15; but see 6.15.32 for a figure of six to seven days. 15. According to both the medical and folk traditions, it takes forty drops of blood to produce one drop of semen: Carstairs, The Twice-Born, pp. 83-84. Cf. SSP 1.73. 16. Conception joins the four lower mahabhiltas, already present in semen, to ether, the empty space of the female womb. Also present are mind and karma, attached to the soul: Dasgupta, History, 2:302, 307. 17. Caraka Samhita 4.2.11-12; Sarngadhara Samhita 1.6.12-13; MBhT 2.13-14; SSP 1.71. When semen is predominant, the fetus is male and spherical; when blood, it is female and elliptical; when equal, is hermaphrodite and hemispherical: Dasgupta, History, 2:314. In alchemy, similar genders are assigned to diamonds (yajras) of different shapes: RA 6.60-71. 18. Gananath Obeyesekere, cited in Kakar, Shamans, p. 234. On the myth of King Moon, see above, chap. 2, nn. 38-40. 19. In one of his mystic poems on hathayogic practice, Gorakhnath identifies the vulva as a vampiress and tigress: Gorakh Bani Pad 48.1-3. An identical sentiment is voiced by Mayana, mother of the Nath Siddha Gopicand, in Gopicandrer Gan, cited in Dasgupta, Obscure, p. 246 n. 1. The alchemical RA (18.103-6) provides a mantra by which the practitioner may protect his semen, mercury, blood, flesh, and bones from hordes of goddesses and succubi who would trouble his dreams and suck him dry in the night. This may be a reference to early kula tantrism, which imagined the "extraction" of vital fluids from within the body by yogints and sakinfs, who would in turn offer the same to Mahabhairava enthroned in the heart (Sand erson, "Purity," p. 213 n. 89, citing Netra Tantra 20.1-40 and other sources). See above, chap. 5, n. 84. 20. Svoboda, Aghora, pp. 280-81. On ojas, see Dasgupta, History vol. 2, p. 343 n. 2, citing Cakrapani's commentary to Caraka Samhita 1.30.6.
j.8
Notes to Epilogue 21. On this and related attitudes as rationales for the practice of widow burning, see the masterful work of Catherine Weinberger-Thomas, Cendres d'immortalite': la cremation des veuves en Inde (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1996; translation forthcoming, University of Chicago Press). 22. This claim was displayed prominently on the billboard over the storefront of a gupta rog clinic in the Lanka district of Benares in 1985. Recall here that the eighth and ultimate limb of traditional Ayurveda is vajikarana, sexual therapy: see above, chap. 2, n. 46. 23. Here I am simply summarizing two detailed studies by Veronique Bouillier: "The King and His Yogi," pp. 1-21; and "Growth and Decay of a Kanphata Yogi Monastery in South-west Nepal," The Indian Economic and Social History Review 28:2 (1991), pp. 151-70, especially pp. 152-60. 24. This legend forms chapter 20 of the late 19th c. Sri Mastnath Carita (Acts of the Illustrious Mastnath) of Saiikarnath Yogi, which places the action in the for tified city of Chittor, in southeastern Rajasthan. 25. Padmaja Sharma, Maharaja Man Singh ofJodhpurandHis Times (1803-1843 A.D.) (Agra: Shiva Lai Agarwala & Company, 1972), pp. 155-56. 26. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 825-27. The most complete and in sightful accounts of the relations between Man Singh and Ayas Dev Nath and his successors are Sharma, Maharaja Man Singh, pp. 153-82; and Daniel Gold, "The Instability of the King: Magical Insanity and the Yogi's Power in the Politics of Jodhpur, 1803-1843," in David N. Lorenzen, ed., Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1995), pp. 120-32.
2 7. Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth: The Management ofReligious Experience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre, London School of Economics Mono graphs on Social Anthropology, 59 (London: Athlone, 1988). 28. The ascetic sects were, by the 1780s, the dominant money-lending and property-owning group in Allahabad, Benares, and Mirzapur: ibid., p. 134, cit ing C. A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p.
'4329. David Lorenzen, "Warrior Ascetics in Indian History," Journal ofthe Ameri can Oriental Society 98 (1978), pp. 68-70. 30. Dirk H. A. Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 74-85: "The warrior-ascetic in song, ballad, and legend." 31. Ibid., pp. 76, 81.
5 ") Notes to Epilogue 32. Tod, Annals and Antiquities, 1:300; and 2:298 ff., cited in Kolff, p. 82. Italics my own. 33. George A. Grierson, "Some Bihari Folk-Songs," JRAS 16 (1884), p. 236, cited in Kolff, p. 77. 34. Van der Veer, Godson Earth, pp. 126-30, 176. 35. Yubaraj Ghimire, "The Rise of the Sadhus," India Today, pp. 61-63. A photo graph on page 62 shows Avedyanath seated, sixth from the left, with the other eight members of the VHP brain trust. See also Veronique Bouillier, "La violence des non-violents, ou les ascetes au combat," in Denis Vidal, Gilles Tarabout, and Eric Meyer, eds., Violences et non-violences en Inde (Purusartha, vol. 16) (Paris: Editions de I'EHESS, 1994), pp. 213-43 an( J especially p. 233 for a historical overview of this phenomenon. 36. Cf. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, p. 133: "Ascetics use violence on their own bodies to acquire power over the microcosm of the body and over the connected macrocosm of nature, and they use violence to acquire power in society." 37. See above, chap. 4, n. 204. The dire and irreversible effects of a Yogi's curse are feared throughout India. E. M. Forster takes a different view, as stated in the epigraph to this chapter. 38. See above, chap. 3, n. 6. 39. Oman, Cults, "A Group of Yogis, One Man Enjoying His Churrus Pipe," facing p. 4; "A Party of Wandering Yogis," facing p. 29. Cf. pp. 7, 29. 40. See above, chap. 4, n. 220. 41. rank se rav rav se ranka, chinmem karaim nahim kuch s'anka: Saiikarnath, Sri Mastnath Carita, p. 108. 42. Illustrious Nath Siddhas are inhumed under burial tumuli called samadhh after death: see above, chap. 4, n. 71; and chap. 9, n. 113. 43. The most common form of greeting between Nath Siddhas, ades means "[what is your] command [?]"; a mystic interpretation holds the term means "Adi [-nath] is Lord [«■«]." 44. On this serpent-keeping and -charming suborder of the Nath sampradaya, see Briggs, Gorakhnath, pp. 59-61 (who calls them Sepalas); and Rose, Glossary, vol. 2, p. 409. 45. Like many of the itinerant Nath suborders, the Sampelas generally live by begging (and by snake charming). 46. See above, chap. 9, n. 28, for this Brahmanic identification. 47. See above, chapter 7, part 3. 48. "Om, Victory to the Lord of Animals!" Pasupatinath, located in eastern Kathmandu, is the national shrine of Nepal.
520
Notes to Epilogue 49. See above, chap. 9, n. 173, for this identification. 50. The "wallet" in which Nath Siddhas carry their numerous paraphernalia. The jholi is the Siddha's magical bag of tricks. 51. See above, chap. 8, n. 220. 52. I am grateful to Bob Ladd, of the Department of Materials Sciences at the University of Virginia, for carrying out electromicroscopic spectroscopy on my sample.
SELECTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Manuscripts Anandakanda of Mahabhairava, 907 fols. Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 830/2. This is a copy of the Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Sanskrit Library manuscript upon which S. V Radhakrishna Sastri's 1952 edition is based. As'caryayogamala of Nagarjuna, 45 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 3941. A.D. 1674. Carpat Rasayan of Carpamath, 2 fols., incomplete (padas, 19-52). Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1178/669 (Hindi). Dattagoraksasamvada. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1557. This work claims to comprise chapters 27-29 of the Tantra Maharnava. Dhatukalpa of the Rudrayamala Tantra, 112 fols. Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 843/18. Gandhakakalpa of the Rudrayaviala Tantra. Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 835/7. Itself a work in twenty-three chapters, this work claims, in its colophon, to be a portion of chapter 28 of the Rudrayamala Tantra. Ghoda Coll. Jaipur. Sri Ramacarana Praya Vidyapith MSS no. Li4.ii.19. Ghodacoli-vakya, 1 fol. Jodhpur. MSL MSS nos. 1481, 1482(a), 1483(b). Goraksa Samhita, 34 fols. (incomplete). Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 841/13. This is a compendium of passages from various tantric works, including the Kaksaputa. It bears no resemblance to either the "Sakta" Goraksa Samhita or the Bhutipra karana. Goraksa Samhita, Bhutiprakarana, 1J4 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1496/1431.
i8thc. , 59 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1497/1432. 19th c. Goraksa Samhita, Svacchandasaktyavatara, Bhutiprakarana, 119 fol. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1499/1434 (VS. 1881). See also below, Svacchandasaktyavatara. , Mahamanthanahhairava Tantrantargatah. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1502/ 1437, 310 fol. This is the manuscript of the "Sakta" Goraksa Samhita that Pandey edited as Goraksa Samhita, vol. 1 (1976). . Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 5-3978 (Ayurveda 89). Reel no. A-213/21, 118 fols. This is a copy of the Bhutiprakarana. 5"
5"
5-3
Selected Bibliography
Selected Bibliography
Goraksa Samhita bhdsa. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 649 (Hindi). This is a Hindi com mentary on the "Sakta" Goraksa Samhita. Kdkacandesvarimata, 32 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 5-3969. Reel no.
Matsyendra Samhita, 179 fol. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1604/1782. 19th c. Natha Caritra of Mansirhha, 85 fol. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1573/1645. 19th c. Paradakalpa of the Rudrayamala Tantra, 244 fols. Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 21/849. Itself a work in twenty-five chapters, this work claims, in its colophon, to be a portion of chapter 28 of the Rudrayamala Tantra. See also below, Rudrayamalatantrapdradakalpa. Rasahrdaya of Srigovinda-bhagavat-pad. Kathmandu, NNA MSS no. T i 18/277 (Ayurveda). Rasakautuka, 5 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4203. Rasaprabodha of Nagadeva, 13 fols. (incomplete). Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4216. Rasardjasiromani of Parasurama. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4258. Rasaratnadipika of Ramaraja, 31 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4222. Rasaratndkara of Nityanatha. This work is divided into five sections (khandas), which appear as separate manuscripts and edited works. They are the (1) Rasa; (2) Rasendra; (3) Vada; (4) Rasayana; and (5) Mantra-khandas. The Rasa, Vada, and Rasayana-khandas have been edited; the Rasendra and Mantra-khandas only exist in manuscript form.
A211/19.
, 57 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 3-118 (Ayurveda 71). Reel no. A-211/8.
, 37 fols. Kathmandu. Reel no. E-i796-86. . London. Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine MSS no. g473This is a copy of NNA MSS no. 3-118. , 43 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 3952. Kaksaputam of Sri Nagarjuna, 140 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 2959/1318. 19th c. of Siddha Nagarjuna, 40 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 2960/1319. 18th c. Kautukacintamani of Pratapadeva, 53 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 3967. Khecari Patala of Adinatha, 19 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1469/1375. A.D.1726. This is a manuscript of the Khecari Vidya. Khecari Vidya of Adinatha, 16 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1468/1374. 19th c. , 23 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1470/1376. 19th c. , 15 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1471/1377. A.D. 1683. , 9 fols. Jodhpur. MSL MSS no. 1472/1378. 19th c. , 15 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 6-1636 (Jyautisa 7). Reel no. A-999/ 7. A.D. 1678. , 15 fols. Kathmandu. NNA. Reel no. M-23/10. , 17 fols. Kathmandu. Kaiser Library MSS no. 316 (Yoga). Reel no. C32/12. , n fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 4-1817 (Tantra 347). Reel no. A1289-9. Kriydkdlagunottara Tantra, 14 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 3-392 (Saivatantra 67). Reel no. B25/32. A.D. 1184. , 88 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 5-4947. Reel no. A149/2. , 88 fols. Kathmandu. Kaiser Library MSS no. 297. Reel no. C30/16. Kubjikdmata. London. Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. MSS no. g50i. This is a copy of NNA MSS no. 1-285 kaMadanavinodanighantu of Ramaraja, 71 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 4-2224 (Ayurveda no. 199) / reel no. Ai289/4 Mahakalatantraraja. Kathmandu. Reel no. E-1358/7.93 fols. in Newari script. This is the same work as the Ndthdbhyudayatantra, referred to by Bu-ston in his History of Buddhism. See Chos-hbyung of Bu-ston. Mahakalayogasdstra, 13 fols. NNA MSS no. 5-6568. Reel no. A207/6. This is a manuscript of the Khecari Vidya.
Rasa Khanda, 68 fols. Kathmandu. NNA. Reel no. D2/7. . Rasa and Rasendra Khandas, 99 fols. Kathmandu. NNA. Reel no. H108/1. . Rasa and Rasendra Khandas, 134 fols. Kathmandu. NNA. Reel no. E2086/3. . Siddha [Mantra] Khanda, 22 fols. Kathmandu. NNA MSS no. 5-3092 (Ay urveda 266) Reel no. B163/19. . Siddha [Mantra] Khanda, 49 fols. Kathmandu. NNA. Reel no. H253/20. Rasdrnava, 106 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4256. A.D. 1675. Erroneously cata logued under the title of Rasardjas'ankara. , 109 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4273. A.D. 1627. , 100 fols. (incomplete). Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4274. Rasasdra of Govindacarya, 81 fols. (incomplete). Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4260. A.D. 1649. Rasasindhu of Visnudeva, 129 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4267. A.D. 1564. Rasavatdra, 10 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4269. Rasendrakalpadruma of Ramakrsnabhatta, 51 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4280. Rasendramangala of Nagarjuna, 45 fol. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4281. , 39 fols. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale. Fonds Palmyr Cordier. MSS no. 1222 (Sanscrit). This is a copy of ASL MSS no. 4281. , 37 fol. Jamnagar. GAU MSS no. 862/34. Rudraydmalatantrapdradakalpa, 144 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4290. A.D. 1662. See also Paradakalpa of the Rudrayamala Tantra.
J*4 Selected Bibliography Sivakalpadruma of Sivanatha, 45 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4349. Svacchandasaktyavatara of Srikantha, 130 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4401. This is the Bhutiprakarana. See also Goraksa Samhita. Yogaratnavali of Srikantha Siva, 175 fols. Bikaner. ASL MSS no. 4184. A.D. 1640. Primary Sources: Advayavajrasamgraha. Ed. Haraprasad Shastri. Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 40. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1927. Aitareya Aranyaka. With the commentary of Sayana. Ed. Rajendralal Misra. Cal cutta: Ganesa Press, 1876. . Trans. Arthur Berriedale Keith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Aitareya Upanisad. Edit, and trans, into French by Lillian Silburn. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1950. Amanaskayoga of Goraksanatha. Ed. Ramlal Srivastav. Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1980. . Ed. Yognath Swami. Poona: Siddh Sahity Samsodhan Prakasan Mandal, 1967. Amarakosa. Srimad Amarasimhaviracitam namalinganusasanam Amarakosa, 2d ed. Ed. with Hindi and Sanskrit commentaries by Brahmananda Tripathi. Chaukhamba Surbharati Granthamala, no. 52. Benares: Chaukhamba Surbharati Prakashan, 1982. Amaraugha Prabodha of Goraksanatha. In Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati of Goraksa natha. Amaraughas'dsana of Goraksanatha. Amaraughasasanam. Ed. Mukundaram Shastri. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies no. 20. Bombay: Nirnay-sagar Press, 1918. Anandakanda. Ed. Sri S. V. Radhakrishna Sastri. Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Series, 15. Tanjore: TMSSM Library, 1952. Apastambha Dbarma Sutra. With the commentary of Ujjwala. Ed. A. Chinnaswami Sastri and A. Ramanatha Sastri. Haridasa Sanskrit Granthamala, no. 93. Be nares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1932. Arthasastra of Kautilya. The Kautilya Arthasastra, 2 vols. Ed. R. P. Kangle. Bombay: University of Bombay Press, 1960. Astanga Hrdaya of Vagbhatta. Astangahrdaya with the commentary of Hemadri. Bombay: Nirnaysagar Press, 1925. Astanga Samgraha. Srimadvagbhattaviracita Astangasamgraha, 2 vols. Ed. with a Hindi translation by Kaviraj Atrideva Gupta. Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, n.d. Atharva Veda. Atharvaveda Samhita, 2 vols. Trans, with a critical commentary by William D. Whitney. Revised and edited by Charles R. Lanman. Harvard Ori ental Series, vols. 7-8. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1905.
5*5
Selected Bibliography bCud len gyi man ngag of Bo dong. In Encyclopedia Tibetica: The Collected Works of Bo don Pan-chen phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal, 13 vols. Ed. S. T Kazi. New Delhi: Tibet House, 1970, vol. 2, pp. 507-601. Bhagavata Purana. Srimadbhagavata Purana, 2 vols. Ed. and trans. C. L. Goswami and M. A. Sastri. Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1971. Bhutasuddhi Tantra. In Tantrasamgraha, vol. 3, pp. 565-625; and vol. 4, pp. 308-16. Bhutiprakarana. Goraksa Samhita (Part Two). Ed. Janardana Pandeya. Sarasvatibhavana-Granthamala, vol. 111. Benares: Sampurnananda Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya, 1977. Brahmanda Purana. Brahmanda Purana of Sage Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa. Ed. J. L. Shastri. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Emile Senart. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1934. Brhat Samhita of Varahamihira. Varahamihiras Brhat Samhita, 2 vols. Ed. and trans. by M. Ramakrishna Bhat. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981, 1982. Candakaus'ika of Ksemlsvara. The Canda-Kausika. Ed. Sibani Das Gupta. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1962. Caraka Samhita, with the commentary of Cakrapanidatta. Ed. with Hindi transla tion by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya, Chaukhamba Ayurvijnan Granthamala, 34. Bombay: 1941; reprint Benares: Chaukhamba Surbharati Prakashan, 1992. Caraka Samhita. Caraka Samhita: Agnivesa s Treatise Refined and Annotated by Caraka and Redacted by Drdhabala: Text with English Translation. Ed. and trans. Priyavrat Sharma. Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, no. 36. Benares: Chowkhamba Orientalia, 1992. Caryagiti. An Anthology of Buddhist Tantric Songs: A Study of the Caryagiti. Ed. and trans. Per Kva:rne. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1977; reprint Bangkok: White Orchid, 1986. Chandogya Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Emile Senart. Paris: Adrien Mai sonneuve, 1930. Chos-hbyung of Bu-ston. Histoty of Buddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston, 2 vols. Trans lated by Ernst Obermiller. Heidelberg: Harrassowitz, 1931-32; reprint Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1986. Dam-pa 'i-chos-rin-po-che- 'phags-pa 'i-yul-du-ji-ltar-dar-ba 'i-tshul-gsal-bar-ston-padgos-'dod-kun-hbyung of Taranatha. Taranathas History of Buddhism in India. Ed. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. Trans. Lama Chimpa Alaka Chattopadhyaya. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1970. Dars'ana Upanisad. In Yoga Upanisads. Dattatreya Tantra. In Indrajalavidyasamgraha. Ed. Jivananda Bhattacharya. Calcutta: V. V Mukherji, 1925, pp. 132-79.
526
5*7 Selected Bibliography
Selected Bibliography Dhydnabindu Upanisad. In Yoga Upanisads. Ekalinga Mdhdtmyam. Premlata Sharma, Ekalingamdhdtmyam (Ekling Mandir kd Sthalapurdna evam Mewdd ke Rdj-Vams kd Itihds. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976. Gheranda Samhitd. Ed. and trans. Sisa Candra Vasu. Madras: Adyar, 1933. Goraksa Paddhati. Ed. with commentary by Mahidhara Sharma. Bombay: Khemaraja Srikrishnadas, 1983. Goraksa Samhitd. Goraksa Samhitd (Part One). Ed. Janardana Pandeya. Sarasvatibhavana Granthamala, vol. n o . Benares: Sampurnananda Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya, 1976. Goraksa Sataka. Das Goraksasataka. Ed. Karl A. Nowotny. Wetterschlick b. Bonn: Richard Schwarzbold, 1976. Goraksa Siddhdnta Samgraha. Ed. Gopinath Kaviraj. Benares: Vidya Vilas Press, 1925. . Ed. Janardana Pandeya. Sarasvatibhavana Granthamala, no. n o . Benares: Varanaseya Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya Press, 1973. Goraksa Vijay. Gorakha Vtjaya of Bhlmasena Ray. Ed. Pancanand Mandal. Calcutta: Visvabharati Granthalaya, 1949. Goraksa Vijay. Kavikokil Vidyapati-krt Goraksavijay. Ed. Harimohan Misra. Patna: Bihar-Rashtrabhasha-Parishad, 1974. Gorkhavamsdvall. Ed. Yogi Narharinath. Benares: Rashtriya Press, 1964. Granthdvali of Kablr. Kabir Granthdvali. Ed. Shyam Sundar Das, 5th ed. Benares: Kasi Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1954. . Kabir Granthavali (Doha). Trans, into French by Charlotte Vaudeville. Publications de l'lnstitut Francais d'Indologie, no. 12. Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1957. Guhyasamdja Tantra. Ed. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya. Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 53. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1931. Hdritasamhitd. La Hdritasamhitd: texte medical Sanskrit. Ed. and trans, into French by Alix Raison. Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1974. Harivafnsa. The Harivantsa Being the Khila or Supplement to the Mahdbhdrata, 2 vols. Ed. Parasuram Lakshman Vaidya. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Insti tute, 1969, 1971. Harsacarita of Banabhatta. The Harsacarita of Banabhatta with Exhaustive Notes [Uccbvdsas I-VIII). Ed. Pandurang Vamana Kane. Bombay: 1918; reprint New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973. . The Harsacarita, trans. E. B. Cowell and P. W. Thomas. London: Univer sity Press, 1897. Hathayogapradipikd of Svatmaraman. Hathayogapradipikd ofSvdtmardman. With the
commentary of Brahmananda. Ed. and trans. Srinivasa Iyengar. Madras: Ad yar, 1972. Himavat Khanda of the Skanda Purdna. Himavatkhandah. Ed. Yogi Narharinath. n.p.: 1957. Hudud al-'Alam. Hudud al-'Alam, uThe Regions of the World'": A Persian Geography 372 A.H.-982 A.H. Trans, and explained by V. Minorsky. Karachi: Indus Publica tions, 1980. Jaiminiya Brdhmana. Jaiminiya Brdhmana of the Sdmaveda. Ed. Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra. Sarasvati Vihara Series, vol. 31. Nagpur: Arya Bharati, 1954. Jaiminiya Upanisad Brdhmana. Ed. and trans. Hans Oertel in Journal of the American Oriental Society 16:1 (1894), pp. 79-260. Jndnakdrikd of Matsyendranatha. In Kaulajnananirnaya of Matysyendranatha. Kddambari of Banabhatta. Bdna's Kddambari (Purvabhdga Complete). Ed. M. R. Kale, 4th revised ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968. . Kddambari: A Classical Sanskrit Story ofMagical Transformations. Trans, with an introduction by Gwendolyn Layne. New York: Garland Publishing, 1991. Kakacandisvara Kalpatantra. Ed. Kailashpati Pandey. Kashi Sanskrit Granthamala, no. 73. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1963. Kaksaputa of Siddha Nagarjuna. In Indrajdlavidydsamgrahah. Ed. Jivananda Bhattacharya. Calcutta: V V. Mukherji, 1925, pp. 264-390. . Kaksaputa mchan khunggi sbyorba. In Sde-dge mtshal-par bstan 'gyur: A Fac simile Edition of the 18th Century Redaction ofSi-tu Chos-kyi-byun-gnas (Prepared under the Direction of H.H. the 16th rgyal-dban Karma-pa). Delhi: Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1978. Toh 1609 (P 2480). Kdlikd Purdna. Ed. English translation and introduction by B. N . Shastri, 2 vols. Delhi: Chowkhambha Sanskrit Series, 1972. Reprint Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1992.
Kdthaka Samhitd. 3 vols. Ed. Leopold von Schroeder. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1900-12. Reprint. Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1970-72. Kathdsaritsdgara of Somadeva. The Ocean of Story Being C. H. Tawneys translation of Somadevas Katha Sarit Sdgara (or Ocean of Streams of Story), 10 vols. Ed. N. M. Penzer. London: Chas.J. Sawyer, Ltd., 1924-28. Kaulajnananirnaya of Matsyendranatha. Kaulajnananirnaya and Some Minor Texts of the School of Matysyendranatha. Ed. Prabodh Chandra Bagchi. Calcutta Sanskrit Series, no. 3. Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1934. Kausitaki Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Louis Renou. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1948. Krtyakalpataru of Bhatta Laksmldhara. Tirthavivecanakanda. Ed. K. V Rangaswamy Aiyangar. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1942.
S*8
5*9
Selected Bibliography Kubjikamata. Kubjikamata Tantra, Kuldlikamndya Version. Ed. Teun Goudriaan and Jan A. Schoterman. Orientalia Rheno-Traiectina, 30. Leiden: Brill, 1988. Kuldnanda Tantra of Matsyendranatha. In Kaulajndnanirnaya of Matysyendranatha. Kuldrnava Tantra. Ed. Taranatha Vidyaratna with an introduction by Sir John Woodroffe. Madras: Ganesh and Company, 1965; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975. Kulavira Tantra of Matsyendranatha. In Kaulajiiananirnaya of Matysyendranatha. Lankdvatdra Sutra. Edited by B. Nanjio. Kyoto: Otani University Press, 1923. Lankdvatdra Sutra. Trans. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1932. Lohasarvasva?n of Suresvarz. TheLohasarvasvamofSriSureswara. Ed. Brahmashankar Mishra with Hindi commentary by Pavani Prasad Sharma. Vidyabhavana Ayurveda Granthamala, no. 46. Benares: Chowkhamba Vidyabhavan, 1965. Mahdbhdrata, 21 vols. Ed. Visnu S. Sukthankar, et al. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1933-60. Mahdnirvana Tantra. With the commentary of Hariharananda Bharati. Ed. Arthur Avalon [John Woodroffe]. Madras: Ganesh, 1929. Reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977. Mahdprajnaparamitdsdstra of Nagarjuna. Iraki de la grande vertu de sagesse de Ndgarjuna (Mahdpi-ajiidparamitas'dstra), 4 vols. Ed. and trans, into French by Etienne Lamotte. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1949-1976. Mahdydna Samgraha. La Somme du Grande Ve'hicule d'Asanga, 2 vols. Ed. and trans. into French by Etienne Lamotte. Bibliotheque du Museon, nos. 6-7. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1938-39. Maitrdyani Samhitd. Die Samhitd der Maitrdyaniya-Sdkhd. Ed. Leopold von Schroeder. Weisbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1972. Maitri Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Marie-Louise Esnoul. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1952. Mdlati-Mddhava of Bhavabhuti. Bhavabhiiti's Mdlati-Mddhava, with the Commentaiy of Jagaddhara, 3d ed. Ed. M. R. Kale. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967. Mdnasolldsa of Bhulokamalla Somesvara. Mdnasolldsa of King Bhfdokamalla Somesvara, 2d ed., 3 vols. Ed. G. K. Srigondekar. Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 28. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1967. Manjusrmtiilakalpa. Ed. T. Ganapati Sastri, 3 vols. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, nos. 70, 76, 84. Trivandrum: Superintendent, Government Press, 1920-22. Manu Snmi. With the commentary of Kulluka Bhatta. Ed. Gopala Sastri Nene. Kashi Sanskrit Series, no. 114. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1970.
Mdrkandeya Purana. Srivydsapranitam Srimdrkandeya Purdnam, 3 vols. Ed. and
Selected Bibliography trans, into Hindi by Satyavrat Singh and Mahaprabhulal Goswami. Sitapur: In stitute for Puranic and Vedic Studies and Research, 1984-1986. Mdtrkabheda Tantra. Ed. Chintamani Bhattacharya, Calcutta Sanskrit Series, 7. Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1933, 1958. Mdtrkabheda Tantra. Trans. Michael Magee [Loknath Maharaj]. Delhi: Indological Book House, 1989. Mrcchakatikd of Sudraka. Mrcchakatikd ofSriSftdraka. Ed. Jagdish Chandra Mishra. Benares: Chaukhamba Surbharati, 1985. Mrgendragama. Mrgendragama, Section des Rites et Section du Comportement avec la Vrtti de Bhattanardyanakantha. Ed. Helene Brunner-Lachaux. Publications de l'lnstitut Franchise d'Indologie, no. 69. Pondicherry: Institut Francois d'lndologie, 1962-
Navandthacaritra of Gaurana. Ed. K. Ramakrishnaiah. Madras: Madras University Press, 1970. Netra Tantra. The Netra Tantram, with the commentary of Ksemaraja, 2 vols. Ed. Madhusudan Kaul. Srinagar: Research Department, 1926, 1939. Padmavat of Muhammad Jayasl. Lakshmi Dhar. Padumavati: A Linguistic Study of the 16th Century Hindi (Avadhi). London: Luzac & Co., Ltd., 1949. . Rajnath Sharma, Jayasl Granthdvali (Padmavat— Tika Sahit). Agra: Vinod Pustak Mandir, 1965. . The Padumawati ofMalik Muhammad JaisJ. Ed. with a Hindi commentary, translation, and critical notes by George Grierson and Sudhakara Dvivedi. Bibliotheca Indica, n.s. 877. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1896. . A. G. Shirreff, Padmavati of Malik Muhammad Jaisi. Bibliotheca Indica, 267. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1944. Parasuramakalpasiitra. With the Sanskrit commentary of Ramesvara. Ed. A. M. Sas tri and S. Y. Dave. Gaekwad's Oriental Series, no. 22. Baroda: Oriental Insti tute, 1950. Pardtrims'ikd, with the Vivarana commentary of Abhinavagupta. Ed. M. K. Sastri. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, vol. 18. Srinagar: Research Department, 1918.
Paratrisika Laghuvrtti of Abhinavagupta. Ed. Jagaddhara Zadoo. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, no. 68. Srinagar: Research Department, 1947. Paratrisika Vivarana of Abhinavagupta. A Trident of Wisdom: Translation of Pardtrisika-vivarana ofAbhinavagupta. Trans. Jaideva Singh, with a foreword by Paul Muller-Ortega. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Pdhipata-Sutram. With the commentary of Kaundinya. Ed. R. Ananthakrishna Sas tri. Trivandrum: Oriental Manuscript Library of the University of Travancore, 1940.
S3°
Selected Bibliography Prabodhacandrodaya of Krsnamisra. Ed. and trans. Sita Krsna Nambiar. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971. Prandgnihotra Upanisad. In Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanisads (listed under Secondary Sources), vol. 2, pp. 645-51. Prasna Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by J. Bousquet. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1948. Raja Martanda of Bhojaraja. Yoga-sutras ofPatanjali with Bhojavrtti Called Rajamdrtanda (in English Translation). Delhi: Parimal Publications, 1990. Rdjataramgini of Kalhana. Kalhanas Rdjataramgini, Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir, 2 vols. Ed. M. A. Stein. London: Constable, 1900. Reprint Delhi: Motilal Ba narsidass, 1979. Ramdyana of Valmiki, 7 vols. Ed. G. H. Bhatt et al. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1960-75. Rasacintdmani of Anantadeva Suri. Ed. Jivaram Kaiidas. Bombay: Venkatesvara Steam Press, 1967. Rasahrdaya Tantra of Govinda. Ed. Yadavji Trikamji Acarya. Lahore: Motilal Banar sidass, 1927. . Srimadgovindabhagavatpddaviracita Rashrdayatantram with the commentary of Caturbhuja Misra. Trans, into Hindi by Daultarama Rasasastri. Vidyavilas Ayurved Series, 5. Benares: Chaukhamba Orientalia, 1989. Rasakdmadhenu. Ed. Yadavaji Trikamji Acarya. Bombay, Nirnaysagar Press, 1925. Reprint Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1988. Rasakaumudi of Bhisagvara Jnanacandra Sarman. The Rasakaumndi of Bhisagvara Jnanacandra Sarman. Ed. Brahmasankar Mishra. Vidyabhavan Ayurveda Granthamala, 47. Benares: Chowkhamba Vidyabhavan, 1966. Rasamanjari of Salinatha. Rasamanjari-vaidyaka. Ed. Raghunathji Srikrsnalal. Bom bay: Venkatesvara Press, 1906. Rasapaddhati of Bindu. Ed. Yadavji Trikamji. Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, 1925. Rasaprakdsa Sudhdkara of Yasodhara. Rasaprakas'a. Edited by Yadavji Trikamji Acharya. Ayurvediya Granthamala, vol. 1. Bombay: Venkatesvara Steam Press, 1910-11.
. Rasaprakdsasndhdkara by Acarya, Yasodhara. With a Hindi translation by Siddhinandan Misra. Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, no. 54. Benares: Chaukham bha Orientalia, 1984. Rasaratndkara of Nityanatha, Rasdyanakhanda. Srinityandthasiddhaviracitah (Rasaratndkardntargatascaturthah) Rasdyanakhandah, ed. Yadavji Trikamji Acharya with a Hindi translation by Indradeo Tripathi. Haridas Sansrit Series, no. 95. Benares: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pustakalaya, 1939, 1982. Rasaratndkara of Nityanatha, Rddhikhanda. Sriparvatiputranityanathasiddhaviracitah
Selected Bibliography Rasaratndkarantargatas caturtho [sic] Rddhikhandah-Vddikbandah, ed. Jivaram Kai idas Shastri. Rasashala Granthamala, no. 9. Gondal: Rasashala Aushadhashram, 1940. Rasaratnasamuccaya of Manikyadeva Suri. The Rasa-ratna-samuccaya ofMdnikyadeva Suri. Ed. and trans. J. C. Sikdar. Jaipur: Prakrta Bharati Academy, 1986. Rasaratnasamucchaya of Vagbhatta. Rasaratnasamucchaya, 2 vols. Ed. with Marathi translation by SadasivBalwantKulkarni. Kolhapur: Sivaji University, 1970,1972. . Srivagbhatacaryaviracitah Rasaratnasamucchaya. Ed. with a Hindi commen tary by Dharmananda Sharma. Benares: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962. Rasarnava. Rasarnava. Ed. P. C. Ray and Hariscandra Kaviratna. Bibliotheca Indica, 174. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1910. . Rasdrnavam nama Rasatantram. Ed. with Hindi translation by Indradeo Tripathi and notes by Taradatta Panta. Haridas Sanskrit Series, 88. Banares: Chowkhamba, Sanskrit Series Office, 1978. Rasdrnavakalpa. Rasarnava kalpa (Manifold Powers ofthe Ocean ofRasa). Ed. Mira Roy and B. V Subbarayappa. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1976. Rasasanketakdlikd of Camundakayastha. Ed. with notes by Yadavji Trikamji Acarya and Hindi commentary by Indradeo Tripathi. Chaukhamba Ayurveda Grantha mala, 10. Benares: Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 1984. Rasendra Bhaskara of Laksminarayana. Jaipur: n.p., 1896. Rasendracintamani of Dhundhukanatha. Ed. Manirama Sastri. Bikaner: Maniramasarma, 1934. Rasendracuddmani of Somadeva. Rasendracuddmani. Ed. Yadava Sharman. Lahore: Motilal Banarsidass, 1932. . Rasendracuddmani by Acarya Somdeva. Ed. Siddhinandan Misra. Varanasi: Chowkhambha Orientalia, 1984. Rasopanisat. Ed. Sambhasiva Sastri. Trivandrum: Superintendent, Government Press, 1928. . Rasopanisat, 2 vols. Ed. with a Hindi translation and commentary by Badrinarayan Sarma. Ajmer: Krsna Gopal Ayurved Bhavan, 1959. Rg Veda. Rg Veda Samhitd, Together with the Commentary of Sdyandchdrya, 4 vols. Ed. F. Max Muller. 2d ed. London: Henry Frowde, 1890-92; first Indian ed. Chow khamba Sanskrit Series no. 99. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1966. Rudraydmala Tantra. Rudraydmalam. Ed. the Yogatantra Department. Yogatantra Granthamala, no. 7. Benares: Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya Press, 1980. Sddhanamdld. Sadhanamdld, 2 vols. Ed. Benoytosh Bhattacharya. Gaekwad's Orien tal Series nos. 26, 41. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1925, 1928.
53-
Selected Bibliography Sakhi of Kabir. Kabir, vol. i. Trans. Charlotte Vaudeville. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974. Sankaradigvijaya of Vidyaranya. Srimacchankaradigvijaya. Ed. K. S. Venkata Ramashastri. Srirangam: Srivanivilasamudralaya, 1972. Sankaravijaya of Anandagiri. Srisankaravijaya ofAnantanandagiri. Ed. N. Veezhinathan, with an introduction by T. M. P. Mahadevan. Madras: University of Madras, 1971. Sarada Tilaka of Laksmanadesikendra. The Sardatilakam ofLaksmanadesikendra with the Padarthadarsa Commentary by Raghavabhatta, 3d ed. Ed. Mukunda Jha Bakshi, Kashi Sanskrit Granthamala, 107. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1986. Sarngadhara Paddhati. The Paddhati of Sarngadhara: A Sanskrit Anthology. Ed. Peter Peterson. Bombay Sanskrit Series, no. 37. Bombay: Government Book Depot, 1888. Sarngadhara Samhita. Ed. and trans. K. R. Srikanta Murthy. Benares: Chaukhamba, 1984. Sarvadarsanasamgraha of Madhava. Sarvadarsanasamgraha ofSdyana-Madhava. Ed. with Commentary by Vasudev Shastri Abhyankar. Government Oriental Series, Class A, no. 1. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1924. Reprint Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1978. . The Sarva-darsana-samgraha or Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Phi losophy by Madhava Achdrya, trans. E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Trubner, 1882. 7th reprint ed. Benares: Chaukhamba Amarbharati, 1978. Satapatha Brahmana. The Satapatha Brahmana in the Madhyandina-Sakha, with Ex tracts from the Commentaries of Sayana, Harisvamin, and Dvivedaganga. Ed. Albrecht Weber. London-Berlin, 1855. Reprinted. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, no. 96. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1964. . The Satapatha Brahmana According to the Madhyandina School. Trans. Julius Eggeling. Sacred Books of the East, vols. 12, 26, 41, 43, 44. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882-1900; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968. Satsahasra Samhita. The Satsahasrasamhita, Chapters 7-5. Trans. J. A. Schoterman. Leiden: Brill, 1982. Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati of Goraksanatha. Edited with an introduction by Kalyani Mallik in Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati and Other Works of the Natha Yogis. Poona: Oriental Book House, 1954. Simhasanadvatrimsika. Vikramas Adventures or the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne, 2 vols. Trans. Franklin Edgerton. Harvard Oriental Series, 26. Cambridge: Har vard University Press, 1926.
533 Selected Bibliography Siva Samhitii. Ed. and trans. Sisa Chandra Vasu, 2d ed. Allahabad: Panini Office, 1914; reprint New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1975. Skanda Purdna. Ed. Nag Sharan Singh, 3 vols. Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1984. Smnicandrika of Devannabhatta. Smnicandrika of Devannabhatta, Ahnika Kanda. Trans, with notes b y j . R. Gharpure. Bombay: V. J. Gharpure, 1946. Solah Somvar tatha Somvar aur Saumya Prados Vrat Katha. Hardwar: Ranadhir Booksales, n.d. Sri Mastnath Carit (Sri Mastnath adbhut lila prakas) of Sri Sankarnath Yogisvar. Ed. Sankarnath Yogisvar. Delhi: Dehati Pustak Bhandar, 1969. Srinathakathasara of Dwarkanath. Srinathakathasara. Ed. Narharinath Yogi. Benares: n.p., 1951. Srinath Tirthavali of Raja Man Singh. Churu, Rajasthan: n.p., 1951. Sunyasampadane of Sri Gujura Siddhavlranaryaru, 5 vols. Ed. and trans. S. C. Nandimath, L. M. A. Menezes, R. C. Hiremath et al. Dharwar: Karnataka Univer sity Press, 1965-72. Susruta Sainbita with the commentary of Atrideva. Ed. Bhaskara Govinda Ghanekar. 5th ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. Su yu ki of Hsuan-tsang. Buddhist Records of the Western World, Translatedfromthe Chinese ofHiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629) by Samuel Beal, 2 vols. London: Trubner & Co., 1884; reprint Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1969. Svacchanda Tantra. Svacchandatantram, with the commentary of Ksemaraja, 2 vols. Ed. Vrajavallabha Dvivedi. Delhi: Parimal Publications, 1985. Svetasvatara Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Aliette Silburn. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1948. Taittiriya Samhita. With the commentary of Madhava. Ed. Rajendralal Misra. Cal cutta: Bibliotheca Indica, i860. Taittiriya Upanisad. Ed. and trans, into French by Emile Lesimple. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1948. Tanjur. sde-dge mtshal-par bstan 'gyur: A Facsimile Edition ofthe 18th Century Redaction of Si-tu Chos-kyi-byun-gnas (Prepared under the Direction of H.H. the 16th rgyal-dbah Karma-pa). Delhi: Delhi Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1978. Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta. The Tantrdloka of Abhinavagupta with Commentaiy by Rajdnaka Jayaratha, ed. with notes by Mukund Ram Shastri, 12 vols. Allah abad: Indian Press, 1918-38. Reprinted with introduction and notes by R. C. Dwivedi and Navjivan Rastogi, 8 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987. Luce dellesacre scritture (Tantraloka). Trans. Raniero Gnoli. Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1972.
534
535
Selected Bibliography Tantrasamgraha, 4 vols. Ed. Gopinath Kaviraj (vols. 1-3) and Ramaprasada Tripathi (vol. 4). Benares: Sampurnanand Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya, 1973-81. Tantrasara of Abhinavagupta. The Tantrasara of Abhinavagupta. Ed. with notes by Mukunda Ram Sastri. Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar, 1918; reprint Delhi: Bani Prakashan, 1982. Tantratattva. Principles of Tantra: The Tantratattva ofSriyukta Siva Candra Vtdyarnava Bhattdcdrya, 2 vols. Ed. John Woodroffe. Madras: Ganesh, 1970. Tdrd Tantra. Tdra-Tantram, ed. Girish Chandra Vedantatirtha. With an introduc tion by A. K. Maitra. Rajshahi: Varendra Research Society, 1914; reprint Delhi: Bani Prakashan, 1983. Todala Tantra. Todala Tantram. Ed. Bhadrashil Sharma. Allahabad: Kalyan Mandir, 1961.
Vaikhdnasa Smdrta Sutra. Ed. Wilhelm Caland. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1927.
Vajasaneyi Samhita. Vajasaneyi Samhitd, 2d ed. With the commentaries of Uvata and Mahldhara. Ed. Vasudeva Laksman Sastri Pansikar. Bombay: Pandurang Jawaji, 1929. Varnaratndkara of Kavisekharacarya Jyotlsvara. Ed. S. K. Chatterji and Babua Misra, Bibliotheca Indica, no. 262. Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1940. Vdsavadattd of Subandhu. The Vdsavadattd of Subandhu. Ed. Fitz-Edward Hall. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1859. Vayutattvam-bhavanopadesa of Ghoraksa. Esoteric Instruction on the Cultivation of the Wind Principle (vayutattvam-bhavanopadesa; rlung gi de nyid bsgom pa V man ngag) in sde-dge mtshal-par bstan 'gyur: A Facsimile Edition of the 18th Century Redaction of Si-tu Chos-kyi-byun-gnas (Prepared under the Direction of H.H. the 16th rgyal-dbah Karma-pa). Delhi: Delhi Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1978. Toh. 2377; P 3219. Vimalaprabha. Portions trans, in Fenner, Edward Todd, Rasdyan Siddhi (listed under Secondary Sources). Vinasikhatantra. Ed. with an introduction and a translation by Teun Goudriaan. Benares: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985. Visnudharmottara Purana. Bombay: Venkatesvara Press, 1912. Ydjnavalkya Smrti, 2d ed. Ed. T. Ganapati Sastri. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982. Yogabija of Goraksanatha. Ed. Ramlal Srivastav. Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1982.
Yogadarsana Upanisad. In Yoga Upanisads. Yogakundali Upanisad. In Yoga Upanisads. Yogamdrtanda of Goraksanatha. In Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati of Goraksanatha.
Selected Bibliography Yogaratnamdld of Nagarjuna. Ndgdrjunas Yogaratnamdld with the Commentary of Svetdmbara Bhiksu Gunakara. Ed. Priyavrat Sharma. Benares: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1977Yoga Sdstra of Dattatreya. Ed. and trans. Amita Sharma. Delhi: Swami Keshawananda Yoga Institute, 1985. Yogasataka of Nagarjuna. Yogasataka: texte me'dicale attribue a Nagarjuna. Ed. and French trans, by Jean Filliozat. Pondicherry: Institut Francais d'Indologie, 1979. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Sdmkhya Yogadarsana or Yogadarsana of Patanjali. Ed. Gosvami Damodara Sastri et al. Benares: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, 1990. . Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali with the commentary of Vyasa. Ed. and trans. Swami Hariharananda Aranya. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1981. Yoga Upanisads. The Yoga Upanisads with the Commentary of Sri UpanisadBrahmayogin. Ed. A. Mahadeva Sastri. Adyar Library Series, vol. 6. Madras: Adyar Library and Research Center, 1968. English translation by Srinivasa Iyengar. Madras: Adyar, 1952. French translation by Jean Varenne. Upanishads du Yoga. Paris: Gallimard, 1971. Yogatattva Upanisad. In Yoga Upanisads. Yogavisaya of Matsyendranatha. In Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati of Goraksanatha. Yogimuni 1000 of Yogimuni. Ed. and trans. S. Raghunathan. Madurai: Madurai University, 1982. Yogisampraddydviskrti of Jnanesvara. Trans, into Hindi by Candranath Yogi. Ahmedabad: Sivanath Yogi, 1924. Yoni Tantra. Yonitantra. Ed. with an introduction by J. A. Schoterman. Delhi: Manohar, 1980. Secondary Sources Aiyar, C. S. Narayanaswami. "Ancient Indian Chemistry and Alchemy of the Chemico-Philosophical Siddhanta System of the Indian Mystics." In Proceedings andTransactionsofthe Third All-India Oriental Conference, Madras, 22-24 Decem ber 1924. Madras: Law Printing House, 1925. Alexander, Ernst Bruce. Statistical Description and Historical Account of the North western Provinces of India. Gazetteer, Northwest Provinces, vol. 6. Allahabad: Northwest Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1881. Ali, S. M. The Geography of the Purdnas, 2d ed. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1973. Alper, Harvey, ed. Mantra. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Anantacharya, E. Rasayana and Ayurveda. Vishakapatnam: World Teacher Publi cations, 1935, 1982.
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Anantharaman, T. R. "Transformations—Metallurgical and Mental," Prof. N. P. Gandhi Memorial Lecture, Varanasi, 18 December 1973. Apfel-Marglin, Frederique. Wives of the God-King. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Aung, Maung Htin. Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism. London: Oxford University Press. 1962. Reprint Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978. Babb, Lawrence. The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975. Bachelard, Gaston. La poetique de I'espace. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1974. Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra. "Compte-rendu de Benoytosh Bhattacharya, edition de la Sddhanamdla." Indian Historical Quarterly 6 (1930): 574-87. . "The Cult of the Buddhist Siddhacaryas." In Cultural Heritage of India, ed. Haridas Bhattacharyya, vol. 4, pp. 273-79. . Studies in the Tantras. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1939, 1975. Bali, Krsna Kumar. Tilld Goraksanath. Haridwar: Pir Kala Nath Trust, 1983. Bandyopadhyay, Pradip Kumar. Natha Cult and Mahanad. Delhi: B. R. Publishing Company, 1992. Banerjea, Aksaya Kumar. Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksa-Vacana-Sangraha. 2d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983. Banerji, R. D. The HaihayasofTripuriand Their Monuments. Memoirs of the Archae ological Survey of India, no. 23. Calcutta: Government of India Central Publi cation Branch, 1931. Barrow, H. W. "On Aghoris and Aghorapanthis." Anthropological Society of Bombay 3:4(1893): 197-251. Barthwal, Pitambaradatta. Gorakh Bam. Allahabad: Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, 1955 (isted. 1942). . YogPravah. Benares: Kashi Viyapith, 1946. Bayly, C. A. Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Bedi, Rajesh and Ramesh. Sadhus: The Holy Men ofIndia. New Delhi: Brijbasi Print ers Private Ltd., 1991. Bernier, Francois. Voyage dans les Etats du Grand Mogol. Ed. with an introduction by France Bhattacharya. Paris: Fayard, 1981. Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tara. Berkeley: University of California Press,
Bhardwaj, Surinder Mohan. Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India. Berkeley: Univer sity of California Press, 1973. Bhattacarya, Jivananda, ed. Indrajdlavidydsamgraha. Calcutta: V. V Mukherji, 1925. Bhattacharya, Benoytosh. An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism. Oxford: Oxford
1973Bharati, Aghehananda. The Tantric Tradition. London: Rider and Co., 1965; New York: Grove Press, 1975. Bharati, Dharmavir. Siddh Sahity. 2d ed. Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, 1955, 1968.
University Press, 1932. Bhattacharyya, Haridas, ed. Cultural Heritage of India. 5 vols. Calcutta: Ramakrishna Mission, 1956. Bhattacharyya, Nagendranath. History of the Tantric Religion (A Historical, Ritualistic and Philosophical Study). Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982. Biardeau, Madeleine. L'Hindouisme: Anthropologie d'une civilisation. Paris: Flammarion, 1981. . Histoires de poteaux: Variations autour de la Deesse hindoue. Publications de PEcole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 154. Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Ori ent, 1989. . "Puranic Cosmogony." In Asian Mythologies, compiled by Yves Bonnefoy and translated under the direction of Wendy Doniger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 43-50. Biardeau, Madeleine, and Charles Malamoud, he Sacrifice dans I'lnde Ancienne. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1976. Blackburn, Stuart H , Peter J. Claus, Joyce B. Fluekiger, and Susan Wadley, eds. Oral Epics in India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Bose, D. M., ed. A Concise History of Science in India. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1971. Bouillier, Veronique. "La caste sectaire des Kanphata JogI dans le royaume du Nepal: l'exemple de Gorkha." Bulletin de I'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient 75 (1986): 125-67. . "Growth and Decay of a Kanphata Yogi Monastery in South-west Nepal." The Indian Economic and Social History Review 28:2 (1991): 151-70. . "The King and His Yogi: Prthivinarayan Sah, Bhagavantanath and the Unification of Nepal in the Eighteenth Century." In John P. Neelsen, ed., Gender, Caste and Power in South Asia: Social Status and Mobility in a Transitional Society, pp. 1-21. . "La violence des non-violents, ou les ascetes au combat." In Denis Vidal, Gilles Tarabout and Eric Meyer, eds., Violences et Non-Violences en Inde, pp. 213-43Boulnois, Lucette. Poudre d'or et monnaies d'argent au Tibet. Paris: Editions du C.N.R.S., 1983. Briggs, George Weston. Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis. Calcutta: Y.M.CA. Press, 1938; New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.
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Selected Bibliography Brooks, Douglas Renfrew. The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sdkta Tantrism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Buoy, Christian. Les Ndtha-yogin et les Upanisads. Publications de PInstitut de Civi lisation Indienne, no. 62. Paris: De Boccard, 1994. Burgess, James. Report on the Antiquities ofKathiawad and Kacch, Being the Result ofthe Second Seasons Operations of the Archaeological Society of Western India, 1874-1875. London: India Museum, 1876; reprint Delhi: Indological Book House, 1971. Carstairs, G. Morris. The Twice Born. London: Hogarth Press, 1958. Chambard, Jean-Luc. "Les trois grands dieux aux enfers: Tradition orale et cycle des fetes hindoues dans un village de l'lnde centrale (M.P.). In Catherine Cham pion, ed. Litterature Populaire et Tradition Orale en Inde (Purusdrtha 17). Paris: Editions de PE.H.E.S.S., 1994. Chenu, Marie-Dominique. Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century. Ed. and trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969; reprint Chicago: Midway Books, 1979. Cordier, Palmyr. Catalogue dufonds tihetain de la Bibliothique nationale, vol. 3. Index du Bstan-hgyur (Tibetain 180-332). Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, 1915. . "Histoire de la medecine indienne: La phtisie pulmonaire." Annales d'hygiene et de me'decine coloniales 15 (1912) 255-66, 535-48. . Nagarjuna et I'Uttaratantra de la Sucrutasamhitd. Antananarivo: n.p., 1896. . "Recentes decouvertes de mss. medicaux sanserifs dans l'lnde (18981902)." Le Museon, n.s. 4 (1903): 321-52. . Vagbhata etVAstdngahrdayasamhitd. Besancon: n.p., 1896. Cort, John. "Twelve Chapters from The Guidebook to Various Pilgrimage Places, the Vividhatirthakalpa of Jlnaprabhasuri," in Phyllis Granoff, ed., The Clever Adul teress and the Hungry Monk. Crooke, William. "Hiriglaj." In Encyclopedia ofReligion and Ethics, vol. 6, pp. 715-16. New York: Scribner's, 1914. . Religion and Folklore of Northern India. London: Oxford University Press, 1926; reprint Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1968. . "A Version of the Guga Legend," Indian Antiquary 24 (1895): 49-56. Ctesias. Indika. In Photios, Bibliotheca, 6 vols. Ed. and trans, into French by Rene Henry. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1959. Baba Cunninathji. Tan-Prakds. Gorakhpur: Eureka Press, 1981. Cunningham, Alexander. Archaeological Survey ofIndia, Four Reports Made during the Years 1862-63-64-65. Simla: Government Central Press, 1871. . A Report ofa Tour in the Central Provinces in 1873-74 and 1874-75. Archaeo logical Survey of India, vol. 9. Calcutta: Archaeological Society, 1879; reprint Benares: Indological Book House, 1966.
Dasgupta, Shashibhushan. An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism. 2d ed. Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press, 1958. . Obscure Religious Cults. 3d ed. Calcutta: Firma KLM Limited, 1976. Dasgupta, Surendranath. A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vols. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press, 1922; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1951-55. Dash, Bhagwan. Alchemy and Metallic Medicines in Ayurveda. New Delhi: Concept Publishing, 1986. . Fundamentals of Ayurvedic Medicine. Delhi: Bansal & Co., 1978. Davis, Richard H. Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshipping Siva in Medieval India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Detienne, Marcel. L'invention de la mythologie. Paris: Gallimard, 1981. Deussen, Paul. Sixty Upanisads. Trans. V M. Bedekar and G. B. Palsule. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. Devi, Konduri Sarojini. Religion in the Vijayanagara Empire. New Delhi: Sterling, 1990.
Dhoundiyal, B. N. Rajasthan District Gazateers: Sirohi. Jaipur: Government Central Press, 1967. Digby, Simon. "Encounters with Jogis in Indian Sufi Hagiography." Typescript of paper read at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 27 January 1970.
. "To Ride a Tiger or a Wall? Strategies of Prestige in Indian Sufi Legend." In According to Tradition: Hagiographical Writing in India. Ed. Winand Caellewaert and Rupert Snell. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994, pp. 99-129. Dikshit, Rajesh. Srf Navanath Caritr Sagar. Delhi: Dehati Pustak Bhandar, 1969. Dimmitt, Cornelia, andj. A. Van Buitenen. Classical Hindu Mythology. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978. Dimock, Edward C , Jr. The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-sahajiyd Cult ofBengal. With a new Foreword by Wendy Doniger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991. Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter. The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon." London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Dowman, Keith. Masters ofMahdmudrd: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Bud dhist Siddhas. Albany: SUNY Press, 1985. Dumezil, Georges. Mythe et epopee, 3 vols: Vol. 1. L'ide'ologie des trois fonctions dans les epopees des peuples indo-europeens, 5th ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1986. Vol. 2. Types epiques indo-europeens: un heros, un sorcier, un roi, 4th ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1986. Vol. 3. Histoires romaines, 3d ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1981. Dumont, Louis. Homo hierarchies: Le systeme des castes et ses implications. Paris: Galli mard, 1978.
54°
Selected Bibliography Dutt, N . "Notes on the Nagarjunikonda Inscriptions." Indian Historical Quarterly 7:3 (September 1931): 633-53. Dvivedi, Hazariprasad. Nath Sampraddy. 3d ed. Allahabad: Lokabharati Prakasan, 1981. , ed. Nath Siddhom ki Bdniydm. 2d ed. Benares: Kasi Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1980 (first ed. 1957). Dwarkanath, C. Introduction to Kdyacikitsd. Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1959. Dyczkowski, Mark S. G. The Canon of the Saivdgama and the Kubjika Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition. Albany: SUNY Press, 1988. . "KundalinI the Erotic Goddess: Sexual Potency, Transformation and Reversal in the Heterodox Theophanies of the Kubjika Tantras." Typescript of paper read at American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 23 November 1992. Eck, Diana. Banaras: City ofLight. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. Eliade, Mircea. Forgerons et alchimistes. 2d rev. ed. Paris: Flammarion, 1977. . The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature ofReligion. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1959. . Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. . Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. 2d ed. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen, 1973. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 12 vols. Ed. James Hastings. New York: Scribner's, 1908-26. Encyclopedia of Religions. Ed. Mircea Eliade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Enthoven, R. E. The Tribes and Castes ofBombay. 3 vols. Bombay: Government Cen tral Press, 1923. Erndl, Kathleen M. Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India in Myth, Ritual, and Symbol. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Ernst, Carl. "The Arabic Version of "The Pool of the Water of Life (Amrtakunda)." Typescript of paper read at American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 20 November 1993. Fenner, Edward Todd. Rasdyan Siddhi: Medicine and Alchemy in the Buddhist Tantras. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1979. Filliozat, Jean. "Al-Biruni and Indian Alchemy." In Studies in the History ofScience in India. 2 vols. Ed. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Educational Enter prises, 1982, vol. 1, pp. 338-43. . "La discipline psychosomatique du yoga et ses fondament theoriques." Annuaire du College de France (1965-66): 383-87.
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Selected Bibliography . La doctrine classique de la me'decine indienne: Ses origines et ses paralleles grecs. 2d ed. Paris: Ecole Fran^aise d'Extreme Orient, 1949, 1975. . Etude de demonologie indienne: Le Kumdratantra de Rdvana et les textes paral leles indiens, tibetains, chinois, cambodgien etarabe. Cahiers de la Societe Asiatique, ie serie, vol. 4. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1937. . "Liste des manuscrits de la Collection Palmyr Cordier conserves a la Bibliotheque Nationale." Journal Asiatique zi^ (1934): 155-73. . "Le Kumaratantra de Ravana." Journal Asiatique 226 (i935):i-66. . "Les mechanismes psychiques d'apres les textes de yoga." Annuaire du Col lege de France (Paris: 1970-71): 415-16; (Paris: 1971-72): 397-99. . "Taoi'sme et yoga." Journal Asiatique 257 (1969): 41-87. Filliozat, Jean, and Louis Renou. Ulnde classique: Manuel des etudes indiennes. 3 vols. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1947-53. Fishlock, Trevor. India File. London: John Murray, 1983; reprint Calcutta: Rupa and Co., 1984. Forbes, Alexander Kinloch. Ras-mala: Hindu Annals of Western India, with particular Reference to Gujarat. London: Richardson, 1878; reprint New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1973. Forster, E. M. The Hill of Devi. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963. Gairola, C. Krishna. "Les conditions sociales et religieuses a I'epoque de Satavahana dans l'lnde (Ie siecle av. J.-C.-IIe siecle ap. J.-Q." Journal Asiatique 243 (1955): 281-95. Gaston, Anne-Marie. Siva in Dance, Myth and Iconography. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982. Gautam, Camanlal. Sri Gorakhndth Caritr. Bareilly: Samskrti Samsthan, 1981. Gellner, David N. Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy ofRitual. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Gharote, M. L., and V. A. Bedekar, eds. Descriptive Catalogue of Yoga Manuscripts. Lonavla: Kaivalyadhama S.M.Y.M. Samiti, 1989. Ghimire, Yubaraj. "The Rise of the Sadhus." India Today (31 January 1993): 61-63. Giri, Sadananda. Society and Sannyasin: A History of the Dasandmi Sannydsins. Be nares: n.p., 1976. Gold, Ann Grodzins./J Carnival ofParting: The Tales ofKing Bharthari and King Gopi Chand as Sung and Told by Madhu Natisar Nath ofGhatiyali, Rajasthan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. . "Gender and Illusion in a Rajasthani Yogic Tradition." In Tale, Text and Time: Interpreting South Asian Expressive Traditions. Ed. Frank Korom, Arjun Appadurai, and Margaret Mills. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990, pp. 102-35.
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Gold, Daniel. "The Instability of the King: Magical Insanity and the Yogi's Power in the Politics ofjodhpur, 1803-1843." In David N. Lorenzen, ed., Bhakti Reli gion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. Albany: SUNY Press,
Heimann, Betty. Facets of Indian Thought. London: Allen and Unwin, 1964. Helffer, Mireille and Gaborieau, Marc. "A propos d'un tambour du Kumaon et de l'ouest du Nepal: Remarques sur l'utilisation des tambours-sabliers dans le monde indien, le Nepal et le Tibet." In Studia instrumentorum musicae populares, Festschrift to E. Emsheimer on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Stockholm: Musikhistorika Museet, 1974.
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Gonda.Jan. Change and Continuity in Indian Tradition. The Hague: Mouton, 1965. . Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit. History of Indian Literature, II, 1. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1977. . Triads in the Veda. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1976. . Visnuism and Sivaism, A Comparison. London: Athlone, 1970. Goswamy, B. N., and J. S. Grewal. The Mughals and the Jogis of Jakhbar: Some Madad-i-Ma'ash and Other Documents. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1967. Goudriaan, Teun, ed. The Sanskrit Tradition and Tantrism. Panels of the Vllth World Sanskrit Conference, Kern Institute, Leiden, 3-29 August 1987. Leiden: Brill, 1990. Goudriaan, Teun, and Sanjukta Gupta. Hindu Tantric and Sakta Literature. History of Indian Literature, II, 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981. Granoff, Phyllis, ed. The Clever Adulteress and the Hungry Monk: A Treasury of Jain Literature. New York, Mosaic Press, 1990. Granoff, Phyllis, and Koichi Shinohara, eds. Monks and Magicians: Religious Bio graphies in Asia. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1988; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994. . "The Song of Manik Candra." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 47:3, pt. 1 (1878): 135-238. . "Two Versions of the Song of Goplcand." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 55 (1885): 35-55. Gupta, Mataprasad. Pracin Bhasa Ndtak Sangrah. Agra: Agra University Press, 1970. Gupta, Sanjukta. "The Mandala as an Image of Man." In Richard Gombrich, ed., Indian Ritual and Its Exegesis. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 32-41. Gupta, Sanjukta, Dirk Jan Hoens, and Teun Goudriaan. Hindu Tantrism. Handbuch der Orientalistik, 2.4.2. Leiden: Brill, 1979. Harzer, Edeltraud. "Samkhya," In Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, pp. 47-51Hawking, Stephen W A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Hazra, R. C. Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs. 2d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975. Heesterman, Jan. The Broken World of Sacrifice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. . The Inner Conflict of Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Hiltebeitel, Alf, ed. Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of Popular Hinduism. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Hou, Ching-lang. Monnaies d'ojfrande et la notion de Tre'sorerie dans la religion chinoise. Paris: Memoires de 1'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1975. Hulin, Michel. La face cache'e du temps: L'imaginaire de Vau-dela. Paris: Fayard, 1985. I-Ching. A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Pranked in India and the Malay Arhcipelago (AD 671-695). Trans. J. Takakusu. London: Clarendon Press, 1896; re print Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1966. Jacobi, H. "Abode of the Blest (Hindu)." In Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 1, pp. 698-700.
Jaggi, O. P. Yogic and Tantric Medicine. History of Science and Technology in India, vol. 5. Delhi: Atma Ram and Sons, 1973. Jamison, Stephanie W. The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991. Joshi, Damodar. "Mercury in Indian Medicine." Studies in History of Medicine 3 (i979)^34-97Joshi, Rasik Vihari. "Notes on Guru, Dlksa and Mantra." Ethnos 37 (1972): 103-12. Kaelber, Walter O. Tapta-Marga: Asceticism and Initiation in Vedic India. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Kakar, Sudhir. The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. . Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982; New Delhi: Oxford India Paper backs, 1990. Kalyan SaktiAnk. Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1934. Kamat, Ashok Prabhakar. Maharastr ke NathpanthJy Kaviyom ka Hindi Kavy. Mathura: Jawahar Pustakalaya, 1976. Kane, Pandurang Vaman. History ofDharmasastra. 5 vols. 2d ed. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1968-75. Kantawala, S. G. Cultural History from the Matsya Purana. Baroda: M. S. Univer sity, 1964. Kapani, Lakshmi. La notion de sarnskara. 2 vols. Publications de 1'Institut de Civi lisation Indienne, no. 59. Paris: De Boccard, 1991, 1993.
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Selected Bibliography
Karambelkar, V W. "Matsyendranath and His YoginI Cult." Indian Historical Quar terly 31 (195 5): 362-74. Kardaswamy, Thiru N. History ofSiddha Medicine. Madras: n.p., 1979. Kaul, Jayalal. LalDed. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1973. Kaviraj, Gopinath. Aspects of Indian Thought. Calcutta: University of Burdwan,
Larson, Gerald James. ClassicalSamkhya: An Interpretation ofits History and Meaning. 2d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979. Lecomte-Tilouine, Marie. "Des dieux aux sommets (Nepal)." In Veronique Bouillier and Gerard Toffin, eds. Classer les Dieux? Des Pantheons en Asie du Sud [Purusartha 15]. Paris: EHESS, 1993, pp. 153-72. Lester, Robert C. Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973. Levi, Sylvain. "Kaniska et Satavahana: deux figures symboliques de l'lnde au pre mier siecle." JournalAsiatique 228 (i936):6i-i2i. . "Manimekhala, divinite de la mer." In Memorial Sylvain Levi. Paris: P. Hartmann, 1937, pp. 371-83. . Le Nepal. 3 vols. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905; reprint Paris: Toit du Monde & Errance, 1985. Lincoln, Bruce. Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Locke, John K. Karunamaya: The Cult ofAvalokitesvara-Matsyendranath in the Valley ofNepal. Kathmandu: Sahayogi Press, 1980. Lorenzen, David. The Kdpalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects. New Delhi: Thomson Press, 1972. . "Saivism: Pasupatas." In Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 13, pp. 18-19. . "Warrior Ascetics in Indian History." Journal of the American Oriental Soci ety 98 (i978):6i-75. Mabbett, I. W. "The Symbolism of Mount Meru." History of Religions 23 (i983):6 4 -8 3 . MacDonald, Ariane. Le mandala du Manjusrimulakalpa. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1962. Madhavan, V R. Siddha Medical Manuscripts in Tamil. Madras: International Insti tute of Tamil Studies, 1984. Madhihassan, S. Indian Alchemy or Rasdyana. New Delhi: Vikas, 1979. Mahapatra, Piyush K. "The Nath Cult of Bengal." Folklore (Calcutta) 12:10 (Octo ber 1971): 376-96. Majumdar, M. R. et al. Historical and Cultural Chronology of Gujarat. 2 vols. Baroda: University of Baroda, i960. Malamoud, Charles. "Cosmologie prescriptive: Observations sur le monde et le non-monde dans l'lnde ancienne." Le temps de la reflexion 10 (1989^303- 25. . Cuire le monde: Mythe et pense'e dans l'lnde ancienne. Paris: Editions de la Decouverte, 1989. Mallmann, Marie-Therese de. "Divinites hindoues dans le tantrisme bouddhique." Arts Asiatiques 10 (i964):67-86.
1966. . Bhdratiy Samskrti aur sadhana. 2 vols. Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1962-64. . Tantrik Sadhana aur Samskrti. Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1979. . Tantrik Vanmay mem Sakta Drsti. Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1963. Khakhar, Dalpatram Pranjivan. "History of the Kanphatas of Kacch." Indian Anti quary 7 (February i8y8):47-53. Khan, Dominique-Sila. "L'Origine ismaelienne du culte hindou de Ramdeo Plr." Revue de I'Histoire des Religions 210 (i993):27~47. . "Ramdeo Plr and the Kamadiya Panth." In N. K. Singhi and Rajendra Joshi, eds. Folk, Faith, and Feudalism. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 1995, pp. 295-327. Knipe, David M. "The Heroic Theft: Myths from Rgveda IV and the Ancient Near East." History of Religions 6 (ig6j):^2S-6o. . "Night of the Growing Dead: A Cult of Vlrabhadra in Coastal Andhra." In Alf Hiltebeitel, ed. Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of Popular Hinduism. . "One Fire, Three Fires, Five Fires: Vedic Symbols in Transformation," History of Religions 12 (i972):28~4i. Kolff, Dirk H. A. Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple. 2 vols. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1946; reprint Benares: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976. . The Presence ofSiva. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. Kraus, Paul. Jabir ibn Hayyan: Contribution a I'e'tude des ide'es scientifiques dans I'lslam: Jabir et la science grecque. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986. Lamb, Alastair. British India and Tibet, 1766-1910. 2d ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986. Lamotte, Etienne. Histoire du Bouddhisme indien, des origines a I'ere Saka. Bibliotheque du Museon, vol. 43. Louvain: Universite de Louvain, 1958. Lapoint, E. C. "The Epic of Guga: A North Indian Oral Tradition." In S. Vatuk, ed., American Studies in the Anthropology of India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1978.
547
Selected Bibliography Mariadassou, Paramananda. Medecine traditionelle de I'inde. 4 vols. Pondicherry: SainteAnne, 1934-36. Maspero, Henri. Le Taoisme et les religions chinoises. With a preface by Maxime Kaltenmark. Paris: Gallimard, 1971. McDaniel, June. The Madness of the Saints: Ecstatic Religion in Bengal. Chicago: Uni versity of Chicago Press, 1989. McGregor, Ronald Stuart. Hindi Literature from Its Beginnings to the Nineteenth Cen tury. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984. Meister, Michael, ed. Discourses on Siva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Nature of Religious Imagery. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. Mely, M. F. de. "L'alchimie chez les chinois et l'alchimie grecque." Journal Asiatique, 96 serie, vol. 6 (September-October 1895): 314-40. Meulenbeld, Jan G. History ofIndian Medical Literature. Leiden: Brill, 1996. Michaels, Axel. "On i2th-i3th Century Relations between Nepal and South India." Journal of the Nepal Research Center 7 (i985):69-72. Misra, Sarat Chandra. "On the Cult of Goraksanath in Eastern Bengal." Journal of the Department of Letters (University of Calcutta) 14 (i927):i-4i. Misra, Shiva Sheikhar. Fine Arts and Technical Sciences in Ancient India with Special Reference to Somesvara's Manasollasa. Benares: Krishnadas Academy, 1982. Misra, Siddhinandan. Ayurvediya Rasasastra. Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, 35. Benares: Chowkhamba Orientalia, 1981. Mitra, Debala. Buddhist Monuments. Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1971. Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. London: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1899; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. Mookerji, Bhudeb. Rasa-jala-nidhi or Ocean of Indian Chemistry and Alchemy. 5 vols. Calcutta: K. C. Neogi, 1926-38. Mukherji, Tarapada. Gopicandra Nataka. Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press, 1970.
Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo. The Triadic Heart ofSiva: Kaula Tantricism ofAbhinavagupta in the Non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Murty, K. Satchidananda. Nagarjuna. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1971. Mus, Paul. Barabudur. Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extreme Orient, 1935. . "La notion de temps reversible dans la mythologie bouddhique." Ecole Pra tique des Hautes Etudes. Annuaire ig^S-ig^. Melun: Imprimerie Administra tive, 1938. Yogi Narharinath. Nav Nath Caurasi Siddh. Benares: Rashtriya Press, 1968. Needham, Joseph, et al. Science and Civilisation in Ancient China. 6 vols. in 17 tomes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954-88.
Selected Bibliography Neelsen, John P., ed. Gender, Caste and Power in South Asia: Social Status and Mobility in a Transitional Society. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1991. Newman, John. "A Brief History of the Kalacakra." In The Wheel of Time: The Kalacakra in Context. Madison, Wis.: Deer Park Books, 1985. Obermiller, Ernst. History ofBuddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston. 2 vols. Heidelberg: Harrassowitz, 1931-32; reprint New Delhi, Sri Satguru Publications, 1986. O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities. Chicago: Univer sity of Chicago Press, 1984. . The Rig Veda. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981. . Siva: The Erotic Ascetic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. . Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in thejaiminiya Brahmana. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. . Women, Androgynes and Other Mythical Beasts. Chicago: University of Chi cago Press, 1980. Oguibenine, Boris. "Sur le termeyoga, le vcrbe yuj- et quelques-uns de leurs derives dans les hymnes vediques." Indo-Iranian Journal 27 (i984):85-ioi. Ojha, Gaurishankar H. "A Gold Coin of Bappa Rawal." Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, new series, 23:6, numismatic supplement no. 40 (i926-27):i4-i8. Oman, John Campbell. Cults, Customs, and Superstitions of India. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908. . The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints ofIndia. London: 1903; reprint Delhi: Orien tal Publishers, 1973. Oosten, Jarich G. The War of the Gods: The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. Padoux, Andre, ed. L'Image divine: Culte et meditation dans I'hindouisme. Paris: Edi tions du CNRS, 1990. , ed. Mantras et diagrammes rituels dans I'hindouisme. Table Ronde, Paris, 21-22 June 1984. Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1986. . "The Body in Tantric Ritual: The Case of the Mudras." In Teun Goudriaan, ed., The Sanskrit Tradition and Tantrism, pp. 65-77. . Vac: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Pal, Pratapaditya. Hindu Religion and Iconology According to the Tantrasara. Los Angeles: Vichitra Press, 1981. Pandey, Divakar. Gorakhnath evam unki Parampara ka Sahity. Gorakhpur: Gorakhpur University, 1980. Pandey, Raj Bali. Hindu Samskaras (Socio-Religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments). 2d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969.
548 Selected Bibliography Parry, Jonathan. "Sacrificial Death and the Necrophagous Ascetic." In Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry, eds. Death and the Regeneration of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Philostratus. Life ofApollonius. Trans. C. P. Jones and edited, abridged, and intro duced by G. W. Bowersock. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. Prakash, Satya. Prdcin Bhdrat mem Rasdyan kd Vikds. Allahabad: Prayag Visvavidyalaya, i960. Pranke, Patrick. "On Becoming a Buddhist Wizard." In Don Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. 343-58. Pir Premnath, Siva-Goraksa. New Delhi: Vijnana Prakashan, 1982. Przyluski, Jean. "Les Vidyaraja," Bulletin de 1'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient 23 (1923): 301-18.
Puhvel, Jaan. Comparative Mythology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Punjab States Gazetteer, vol 2 2 A. Chamba State with Maps, 1904. Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1910. Rama Rao, B. and Reddy, M. V "A Note on Goraksanatha and His Work Yogadipikd." Bulletin of the Indian Institute of the History of Medicine (Hyderabad) 12 (i982):34-38. Ramachandra Rao, S. K. Sri-Cakra. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1989. Raman Shastri, V. V "The Doctrinal Culture and Tradition of the Siddhas." In Cultural Heritage of India, ed. Haridas Bhattacharyya, vol. 4, pp. 300-8. Ramanujan, A. K. The Inner Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975. . "The Myths of Bhakti: Images of Siva in Saiva Poetry. In Michael Meister, ed., Discourses on Siva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Nature of Religious Im agery. . Speaking ofSiva. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. Rao, T A. Gopinath. Elements of Hindu Iconography. 2 vols. Madras: Law Road Printing House, 1914-16. Rastogi, Navjivan. Introduction to the Tantrdloka: A Study in Structure. Albany: SUNY Press, 1987. . The Krama Tantrism of Kashmir. Vol. 1. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979. Ray, Prafulla Chandra. A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the 16th Century A.D. 2 vols. Calcutta: Prithwis Chandra Ray, 1902, 1909.
Ray, Priyanaranjan. History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray. Calcutta: Indian Chemical Society, 1956.
549
Selected Bibliography Renou, Louis. "Etudes vediques," Journal Asiatique 243 (i955):405~38. Rhys-Davids, Caroline A. F. "Original Buddhism and Amrta." Melanges chinois et bouddhiques [Brussels], vol. 6 (1938-39), pp. 371-82. Robinson, James B. Buddha's Lions: The Lives of the Eighty-four Siddhas. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1979Rose, H. A. A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province, 3 vols. Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1911-19; reprint Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1990. Ro§u, Arion. "A la recherche d'un tirtha enigmatique du Deccan medieval." Bulletin de 1'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient 60 (i969):23~57. . "Alchemy and Sacred Geography in the Medieval Deccan." Journal of the European AyurvedicSociety 2 (i992):i5i-56. . "Considerations sur une technique du Rasdyana Ayurvedique." Indo-Iranian Journal 17 (i975):i-29. . Gustave Lietard et Palmyr Cordier: Travaux sur I'Histoire de la me'decine indienne. Publications de l'lnstitut de Civilisation Indienne, no. 56. Paris: De Boccard, 1989. . "Mantra et Yantra dans la medecine et l'alchimie indiennesr Journal Asia tique 274:3-4 (i986):205-68. . "Le renouveau contemporain de l'Ayurveda." Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sudasiens 26 (i982):59-82. . "Yoga et alchimie." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft 132 (i982):363-79. Roux, Jean-Paul. "Turkish and Mongolian Shamanism." In Asian Mythologies, com piled by Yves Bonnefoy and trans, under the direction of Wendy Doniger. Chi cago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 329-30. Ruben, Walter. Eisenschmiede und Damonen in Indien. Internationales Archiv Fur Ethnographic 37, suppl. Leiden: Brill, 1939. Ruegg, David Seyfort. "Sur les rapports entre le Bouddhisme et le 'substrat religieux' indien et tibemn!'Journal Asiatique 252 (i964):77-95. Sachau, Edward, ed. Alberuni's India. 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trubner, Inc., 1910; reprint Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983. Sahagal, Sarasvati. Gorakh Dars'an. Hyderabad: Madhu Printers, 1979. Saletore, Bhasker Anand. Ancient Karnataka. 2 vols. Poona: Oriental Books Agency, 1936. . "The Kanaphata Jogis in Southern History." Poona Orientalist 1 (January i937):i6-22. . Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346-A.D. 1646). 2 vols. Madras: B. G. Paul & Co., 1934.
55°
Selected Bibliography Samksipt Hindi Sabd Sagar. Edited by Ramcandra Varma. Benares: Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1981. Sanderson, Alexis. "Mandala and Agamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir." In An dre Padoux, ed., Mantras et diagrammes rituels dans I'hindouisme, pp. 169-207. . "Meaning in Tantric Ritual." In Ann-Marie Blondeau, ed., Le Rituel. vol. 3. Paris: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 5e section, 1996, pp. 15-95. . "Purity and power among the Brahmins of Kashmir." In The category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy, History. Ed. Michael Carrithers, Steven Collins, and Steven Lukes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 191216.
. "Saivism and the Tantric Tradition." In The Worlds Religions. Ed. S. Suther land et al. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 660-704. . "Saivism: Krama Saivism"; "Saivism: Saivism in Kashmir"; "Saivism: Trika Saivism." In Encyclopedia ofReligion, vol. 13, pp. 14-17. . "The Visualization of the Deities of the Trika." In Andre Padoux, ed., Vi ntage divine: Culte et meditation dans I'hindouisme. Paris: CNRS, 1990. Sankrryayana, Rahula. "(Recherches Bouddhiques II) L'Origine du Vajrayana et les quatre-vingt siddhas." Journal Asiatique 225:2 (October-December 1934): 209-30.
Sastri, Devadatt. Agneya tirth Hingldj. Bombay: Lokaloka Prakashan, 1978. Schmidt, Toni. "FunfundachtzigMahasiddhas." Ethnos 2-3 (i955):i03-2i. Schwartzberg, Joseph E., ed. A Historical Atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978; second impression, with additional material, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Sen, Gananath. Ayurved Paricay. Shantiniketan: Visva Vidya Samgraha, 1943. Sen, Sukumar. History of Bengali Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, i960. Sethi, V. K., ed. Kabir: The Weaver of God s Name. Beas, Punjab: Radha Soami Satsang Press, 1984. Sethu Raghunathan, N. "Contribution of Yoogi Munivar for Siddha System of Medicine." In Heritage of the Tamils: Siddha Medicine. Ed. S. V. Subrahmanian and V. R. Madhavan. Shanmuga Velan, A. Siddhars Science of Longevity and Kalpa Medicine of India. Ma dras: Sakthi Nilayam, 1963. Shah, Shersingh. Sri Keddrndth Mdhdtmya (Ydtrd Gdfd). Kedarnath: Shersingh Shah, n.d. Sharma, Brijendra Nath. Iconography of Sadds'iva. New Delhi: Abhinava Publica tions, 1976. Sharma, Padmaja. Maharaja Man Singh ofJodhpurandHis Times (1803-1843 A.D.). Agra: Shiva Lai Agarwala & Company, 1972.
5>'
Selected Bibliography Sharma, Priyavrat. Ayurved ka Vaijndnik Itihds. Jaikrishnadas Ayurveda Series, no. 1, 2d ed. Benares: Chowkhamba Orientalia, 1982. . Indian Medicine in the Classical Age. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 85. Benares: Chowhkamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1972. Sharpe, Elizabeth. An Eight-Hundred Year Old Book of Indian Medicine and Formulas, Translatedfrom the Original Very Old Hindi into Gujarati Character and Thence into English. London: Luzac & Co, 1937; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Ser vices, 1979. Shastri, Haraprasad. A Catalogue of Palm-Leaf and Selected Paper Manuscripts Belong ing to the Durbar Library, Nepal. 2 vols. Calcutta: n.p., 1905, 1915. Shorter Oxford Economic Atlas ofthe World. 2d ed. Prepared by the Economist Intelli gence Unit. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. Siegel, Lee. Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Silburn, Lilian. Kundalinl: Energy of the Depths. Trans. Jacques Gontier. Albany: SUNY Press, 1988. . "Le vide, le rien, Pabime." In Le Vide: Experience spirituelle. Paris: Hermes, 1969. Singh, Moti. Nirgun Sdhity: Sdmskrtik Prsthabhumi. Benares: Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1963. Singh, Raya Bahadur Munshi Haradayal. Riport Mardumasumari Raja Mdrvdd Bdbat san[vat] 1891 Isvi, Tisardhissd. 2 vols. Jodhpur: Vidyasal, 1895. Sinha, S., and B. Saraswati. Ascetics of'Kashi: An Anthropological Exploration. Varanasi: N. K. Bose Memorial Foundation, 1978. Sircar, D. C. Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature. Calcutta: Indian Studies: Past and Present, 1967. . The Guhilas of Kiskindha. Calcutta: Sanskrit College, 1965. . The Sdkta Pithas. 2d rev. ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973. . Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India. 2d rev. ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977, 1990. Sivalal, Sridhar, ed. Gopicand ka Akhydn. Bombay: Jnan Sagar, 1890. Smith, Brian K. Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Snellgrove, David. Buddhist Himalaya: Travels and Studies in Quest of the Origins and Nature of Tibetan Religion. Oxford: Cassirer, 1957. . Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors. 2 vols. Boston: Shambhala, 1987. Spiro, Melford. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
55-
Selected Bibliography Srivastav, Ramlal, ed. "Gorakh" Visesank [Yog Vant special issue no. i for 1977]. Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1977. , ed. "Gorakh Ban!" Visesank [Kg VihiJ. special issue no. 1 for 1979]. Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1979. , ed. uNath Siddh Carit" Visesank [Yog Vani, special issue no. 1 for 1984]. Gorakhpur: Gorakhnath Mandir, 1984. Stein, R. A. Grottes-Matrices et Lieux Saints de la de'esse en Asie orientate. Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 1988. Stein, Rolf. "Architecture et pensee en Extreme-Orient." Arts Asiatiques 4:3 (1957): 163-86. . "Jardins en miniature d'Extreme Orient." Bulletin de I'Ecole Francaise d'Ex treme Orient 52 (i942):i-io4. Stern, Henri. "Le temple d'EklirigjI et le royaume de Mewar (Rajasthan) (rapport au divin, royaute et territoire: sources d'une maitrise)." In Jean-Claude Galey, ed., UEspacedu Temple (Purusartha 10) (1986), pp. 15-30. Subrahmanian, S. V., and V. R. Madhavan, eds. Heritage of the Tamils: Siddha Medi cine. Madras: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1983. Sukul, Kubernath. Varanasi Down the Ages. Benares: Bhargava Bhushan Press, 1974. Sutherland, Gail Hinich. "Bija (Seed) and Ksetra (Field): Male Surrogacy or Niyoga in the Mahabharata." Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s. 24 (1990): 77-103. Svoboda, Robert. Aghora: At the Left Hand of God. Albuquerque: Brotherhood of Life, Inc., 1986. Swynnerton, Charles. Romantic Talesfrom the Punjab. Westminster: Archibald Con stable & Co., 1903. Temple, Richard Carnac. The Legends of the Punjab. 3 vols. London: Turner and Company, 1884-86; reprint Patiala: Department of Languages, Punjab, 1963. Thapar, Romila. "The Image of the Barbarian in Early India." Comparative Studies in Society and History 13:3 (July i97i):4o8~36. Tod, James. Annals and Antiquities ofRajasthan. Ed. with an introduction by William Crooke. 3 vols. London: H. Milford, 1920; reprint Delhi: Low Price Publica tions, 1990. Treloar, Francis E. "The Use of Mercury in Metal Ritual Objects as a Symbol of Siva." ArtibusAsiae 34 (i972):232~40. Tucci, Giuseppe. "Animadversiones Indicae." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal n.s. 26 (1930): 12 5-60. . Tibetan Painted Scrolls. 3 vols. Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1949. Tulpole, Shankar Gopal. Mysticism in Medieval India. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984.
553 Selected Bibliography Upadhyaya, A. N. "On Some Undercurrents of the Natha-sampradaya or the Carpata-s'ataka." Journal of the Oriental Institute (Baroda)48:3 (1968-69): 198-206. Vaidyaraj, Vansidhar Sukul. Vamamarg. Allahabad: Kalyan Mandir, 1951. Vaidyaraja, Yogiraja. "Yoga Research on Mercury and the Dhatus." Cakra: A Journal ofTantra and Yoga [New Delhi] 4 (March i972):i86. Vaisya, Syamasundaracarya. Rasayan Sar. 2 vols. 5th ed. Benares: Syamasundar Rasayansala, 1971. Vallee Poussin, Louis de la. "Le Bouddhisme et le Yoga de Patanjali." Melanges chinois et bouddhiques [Brussels] 5 (1936-37): 223-42. Van Buitenen, J. A. "The Indian Hero as Vidyadhara." In Traditional India: Structure and Change. Ed. Milton Singer. Philadelphia, American Folklore Society, 1959, pp. 99-105. Van der Veer, Peter. Gods on Earth: The Management ofReligious Experience and Iden tity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre, London School of Economics Mono graphs on Social Anthropology, 59. London: Athlone Press, 1988. Van Kooij, Karel R. Worship of the Goddess According to the Kalika Purana, part i: A Translation with an Introduction and Notes of Chapters 54-69. Leiden: Brill, 1972. Varenne, Jean. Cosmogonies vediques. Milan: Arche, 1982. . Upanishads du yoga. Paris: Gallimard, 1971. Vaudeville, Charlotte. Kabir, vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974. Venkata Ramanan, K. Nagarjunas Philosophy: As Presented in the MahaPrajnaparamita-Sastra. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975. Vidal, Denis, Gilles Tarabout, and Eric Meyer, eds. Violences et non-violences en Inde (Purusartha 16). Paris: Editions de l'EHESS, 1994. Vostrikov, A. I. Tibetan Historical Literature. Trans. Harish Chandra Gupta. Cal cutta: R. D. Press, 1970. Waley, Arthur. "Notes on Chinese Alchemy," Bulletin ofthe School of Oriental Studies (l930-32):22-24. Walker, Benjamin. Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism, 2 vols. New York: Praeger Books, 1968. Walleser, Max. "The Life of Nagarjuna from Tibetan and Chinese Sources." In Bruno Schindler, ed., Asia Major: Hirth Anniversary Volume. London: 1923. Walter, Michael Lee. "Preliminary Results from a Study of Two Rasayana Systems in Indo-Tibetan Esoterism." In Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hugh Richardson, ed. Michael Aris and Aung San Sun Kyi. Warminster, Eng.: Aris and Phillips, 1979. . The Role of Alchemy and Medicine in Indo-Tibetan Tantrism: Ph.D. disserta tion, Indiana University, 1980.
554
Selected Bibliography Watt, George. Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. 9 vols. Calcutta: Superin tendent of Government Printing, 1889-96. Second reprint in 10 vols. Delhi: Periodical Exports, 1972. Watters, Thomas. On Yuan-Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D. 2 vols. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904-05. Wayman, Alex. The Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973. . Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: The Arcane Lore of Forty Verses. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1977. Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine. Cendres d'immortalite, la cremation des veuves en Inde. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1996. White, David Gordon. "Dakkhina and Agnkayana: An Extended Application of Paul Mus's Typology." History of Religions 26:2 (November 1986): 188-213. . Myths of the Dog-Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. . "Why Gurus Are Heavy." Numen 33 (1984), pp. 40-73. Wink, Andre. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. 1: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, Seventh to Eleventh Centuries. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990. Woodroffe, John. The Serpent Power. 9th ed. Madras: Ganesh, 1973. . Tantraraja Tantra: A Short Analysis. 3d ed. Madras: Ganesh, 1971. . Tantra of the Great Liberation. London: Luzac & Co., 1913; reprint New York: Dover Publications, 1972. Wujastyk, Dominik. "An Alchemical Ghost: The Rasaratnakara by Nagarjuna." Ambix 31:2 (July i984):70-83. . "Ravigupta and Vagbhata." Bulletin ofthe School of Oriental and African Stud ies 48:1 (i985):74-78. Yazdani, G., ed. The Early History of the Deccan. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1960-61. Zbavitel, Dusan. Bengali Literature. History of Indian Literature, vol. 9, fasc. 3. Leiden: Brill, 1976. Zimmerman, Francis. Le discours des remedes au pays des epices: Enquete sur la medecine hindoue. Paris: Payot, 1989. . "Rtu-Satmya: Le cycle des saisons et le principe d'appropriation." Purusartha 2 (i975):87-io5. (English translation: "Rtu-Satmya: The-Seasonal Cycle and the Principle of Appropriateness." In Social Science and Medicine 14B [i98o]:94-io6.) Zvelebil, Kamil V. The Poets of the Powers. London: Rider and Company, 1973. Zysk, Kenneth. Religious Healing in the Veda. Transactions of the American Philo sophical Society, vol. 75, part 7. Philadelphia: The Society, 1985.
INDEX
Abhinavagupta, 4, 7, 73, 88-89, 97> 135-38, 142, 172, 178, 213, 222, 224, 228, 255, 312, 329, 330, 385, 389, 416, 423, 461, 464, 465, 470, 496, 508. See also Paratrimsikavivarana; Tantraloka Abu (Mount), 118-20, 158, 331, 34950,389,410,412-13,434 Acharya, A. C , 337 Acintanath, 96, 397, 500. See also Matsyendra Adams, Douglas, 318 adhopatana yantra. Stepatana adhoretas, 233, 240, 473. See also urddhvaretas adhovaktra. See mouth adhyatman-adhiyajna-adhidevatd. See microcosm-macrocosm-mesocosm Adi[-nath], 2, 71, 73, 82, 84, 88, 91-93, 95-96, 98, 124, 133, 140-41, 169, 2 3°. 2 95. 39°. 392> 4'5> 4 2I > 4 6 0 . 473 Advaita Vedanta. See Sarikara Afghanistan, 63, 66, 98, 121, 204, 398, 449 Aghoris, 201, 313, 341, 399,412,454 agneya. See year, solar
212, 214, 246, 259, 269, 271, 283, 285-86, 441, 447, 448, 463, 493, 499, 512. See also fire; rasa-agnivayu agnkayana (piling of the fire altar), 11, 32, 269 djna (the "control" cakra), 40, 226, 284, 291, 293, 469, 480; Benares identi fied as, 231 Akulavira Tantra of Matsyendra, 141, 158,513 Alberuni, 49, 53-54, 76, 105, 116, 125, 149, 165, 199, 299, 300, 311, 372, 429 alchemical allegory, 294-300, 505. See also Padmavat; Puran Bhagat alchemical canon, 144-70 Alchemical Man, 149-51, 245, 301, 320; in western traditions, 295 alchemists, Indian. See Rasa Siddhas alchemy, historical etymology of the term, 204, 376 Alexander the Great (Iskandar), 238 Alba Khand, 238, 476 Allama Prabhu, 83, 102-3, l : l > I29> 2
37-3 8 . 375. 4o6~7> 475 alternation of generations. See guru amalgamation. See gold, amalgamation
Agni, 11, 13, 16, 189, 190, 191, 203,
555
557
Index Amanaska Yoga of Gorakhnath, 141, 2
l6
IQ
Sl
49> 3H- 3 > 3 . 4 Amarakos'a, 57 Amaraugba Prabodha of Gorakhnath, 141, 225, 228, 264 Amaraughaiasana of Gorakhnath, 141, 231, 254,484 amdvasyd. See month, lunar Amba, 118 dmnayas (tantric Transmissions), 7980, 181, 210, 388, 423. See also in dividual names of dmnayas Amrt Kund. See waters, magical amrta. See nectar Amrtakunda, hathayogic text attributed to Goraksa, 106, 108 anagogy, 354 anahata: bandha, 497, 502; cakra, 293, 452; ndda, 107, 293 Anandakanda, 80, 146, 154, 160, 16769, 191, 192, 325, 391, 405, 416, 418, 437; authorship of, 126; list of Rasa Siddhas in, 85-88, 90, 100
Ananta (name of a Serpent), 213-215, 374. 463 Anantharaman, T. R., 338 Andhra Pradesh, 60-61, 77, 103, 112, 121, 161, 286, 356, 375, 382, 406, 408. See also Srisailam; Telugu lit erature anjana (black antimony; invisibility salve), 49, 60, 164-65, 166, 305, 329,330,331,436,514 anthropic principle, 426 Anup Sanskrit Library, Bikaner, 127, 421,431,435 aphrodisiacs, 145, 153, 160, 166, 370, 430
apotheosis. See Siddhas (Perfecti), ac ceding to the world of Ardhanarisvara, 252 arivarga (class of "enemy" metals), 154 Arjun Naga/Naga Arjan, 92-93, 121, 13 2. See also Nagarjuna arsenic, 189, 195, 198. See also red, ar senic Artha Sastra of Kautilya, 370, 380, 382, 446 Aryadeva, 69, 81. See also Karnari-pa Aryal, Mukunda Raj, 438 dsanas (yogic postures), 220, 265, 274, 294, 422. See also matsyendrdsana; viparitakarani Asaiiga, 43 ashes: and purification, 444, 445; ashfruits, 286; curative powers of, at Bogar shrine, 376; golas of, 287; identified with nectar, 285, 349; in Nath Siddha legend, 287-88, 503; initiation with, 289, 299, 499; re duction of mercury to (see mer cury, bhasmasiltaka; mrtasiitaka); re duction of metals to, 244, 267, 268, 297, 441; remains of pralaya, 213-25, 232 (see also Sesa); ritual use of, 180; "theology" of, 28485, 499; worn by Saiva sectarians, 9. 97. 3°5. 5°° Asi River. See Benares Assam, 62-63, 115, 119, 138-39, 195, 235, 278, 379, 473. See also Kamarupa astabandha, 194 Astdnga Hrdaya of Vagbhatta the Younger, 390 Astdnga Samgraha of Vagbhatta the El der, 52, 64-65, 125, 149, 371, 390
Index ahiddhadhvan. See maya Asuras (antigods), 10, 58-59, 190, 192, 278, 285, 323, 324, 374, 426, 500, Asvaghosa, 35 Asvins, 359 Ataka. See caves Atharva Veda, 12-14, 23, 359, 373, 447 Atma Bodb. See Gorakh Bodh dtman, 18-20, 33-34, 36-38, 46, 102, 155, 185, 207, 211, 359, 360, 459. See also brahman Aughars, 100, 399 Aurangzeb, 1, 52, 106, 405 aurifaction. See transmutation ausadhi. See herbs avadhuta, 426, 497; Avadhuta Gitd, 141, 426; AvadhutT, in Buddhist subtle physiology, 252, 454; form of yoga taught by Dattatreya, 141; sampraddya, 99, 395 Avalokitesvara, 70, 94, 224, 396, 415; Siddhas in the entourage of, 512 Avedyanath, xii, 346-47, 398, 493, 519 Avicenna, 189 Ayas Dev Nath. See Deonath Ayodhya, 346-47, 398 Ayurveda, 13, 19-29, 37, 52-53, 55, 87, 117, 160, 167, 184-88, 206-7, 241, 245, 258, 270, 271, 287, 324,
Babb, Lawrence, 364 Babylonian mythology, 212, 462 Bachelard, Gaston, x badavd (doomsday mare) and badava (doomsday fire), 193, 223, 231-34, 414, 472. See also Vadava Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra, 467, 470 Bahl, Kali Charan, xi Bail Bhadai, 92-93 Balatripurasundari, name of the God dess in the Srlvidya Kaula, 79, 178, 181,392,443 Baluchistan. See Pakistan bahya-druti (external flux), 268, 492 Bana[bhatta], 49, 52-53, 60, m , 118,
32I> 33°. 377. 3 8 2 . 4°9- See also Kddambari; Harsacarita bandhana (alchemical and hathayogic binding, fixation) and bandhas (hathayogic locks), 135, 164, 166, 197, 199, 202, 220, 249, 262, 266, 2 73> 2 75. 2 7 ° - 8 i , 290, 292, 293, 299, 441, 470, 490, 491, 495, 496, 498; jalandhara bandha, 249, 277, 319, 496; mahdbandha, 279; mula bandha, 221, 277; sabtja bandha, 294; uddiydna bandha, 2-jj. See also stabilization and stability; swooned, killed, and bound mercury bants of Gorakh, xi, 121, 202, 235, 242, 339. 340. 343. 346, 347. 356, 377. 250,278, 281, 293,321,400,477, 411, 427, 430, 462; definition of 488, 502; language of, 96, 132; human being, 20. See also bhutanames of specific poem cycles, vidyd, kuti-pravesa; rasa sastra; rasd140. See also Gorakh Bodh yana, Ayurvedic; rogavada; rtusdtmya; vaidya; vajlkarana banka ndla (the "curved duct"), 261,
Baba Kinnaram, founder of the Aghori sect, 412
485. 489 Bappa Rawal, king of Mewar, 120, 122, 311,313,413,508
558 Index Barthwal, Pitambaradatta, 132, 399 Basava[nna], 46, 393; Basava Purana, 3H Batukanatha, 430; Batukanatha Bhairava, 152; Batukesvara, 430 Bauls, 109, 228-29, 403, 471 bcud len. See extraction of the essence bCud len gyi man ngag bshad pa of Bo dong, 71, 385, 449 Bdud-rtsi-bam-po-brgyad-pa, of Vimalamitra, 453 Benares, 225-34 passim, 245, 305, 308, 336, 346, 347, 398, 412, 435, 469, 471, 487, 518; mystic etymology of name, 226 Benares Hindu University, 336-38, 514 Bengal, 2, 60, 65, 89, 98, 107-9, 162, 237, 260, 324, 345, 393, 399, 402-5, 434, 435,470,472, 476, 502. See also Bauls; eastern India Bengali literature, 92-94, 223, 244, 295. 333- 395. 4°3> 4o8> 4z6> 454466, 475, 476, 502, 508. See also Caryapadas; Goraksa Vijay Bernier, Francois, 9, 50-52, 56, 101, 17°. 349 bhagat, etymology of, 298. See also Puran Bhagat Bhagavantnath, 343, 344, 347, 348 Bhairava[s], 9, 44, 54, 71, 89, 127-28, '35. '37. i4*» J45> H 8 - r52> T57> 160, 167, 169, 171, 180, 228, 284, 286, 316, 397, 414, 416, 429, 440, 443, 444, 476; Anandabhairava, 142, 417; Batukanatha Bhairava, 152; called leader of Siddha Kaula, 133; in Siddha lists, 83-84, 86, 91; Kalabhairava-natha, 98;
559
Index
Mahabhairava, 126, 517; Pancali Bhairava, 442; Rasarikusa Bhairava, 440; Vajrabhairava, 465; Yamantaka Bhairava, 65. See also Manthanabhairava; Rasabhairava; Svacchandabhairava Bhairavacarya: alchemical author, 126, 128, 158, 430; Saiva ascetic in the Harsacarita, 307, 310, 321, 33° Bhairavananda Yogi, 127, 148, 417 BhairavT, 71, 127, 142, 145, 152-53, 167, 430. See also CandabhairavT; RasarikusI Bhaluki, 158, 390 Bhambhulnath, xii, 349 Bhandarinath, 349-51 Bharati, Dharmavir, 455 Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party), 347 Bhartrhari, 92-94, 98, 109, 117, 132, 333, 396,412,497; called Vicarnath, 288, 500 Bhaskara, 82, 106, 112, 114, 125-26, 158,408,415 bhedabheda (identity in difference), 222, 241,252
bhedana. See piercing BhTls, 120, 413, 451 bhoga, 220, 234, 263, 465; bhogavatia name for kundalini, 219, 465 Bhoja[deva]: King of Malava, 49, 54, 373; Bhojarajiyamu of Ananta 369, 429. See also Rajamartanda Bhutan, 104-5 Bhutas, demonic Beings, 374, 494; Bhuta Tantras, 419, 493, 494; Bhutanatha, 98, 305; bhiitavidya (demonology), 58, 165, 373, 374
bbutasuddhi, 150, 180, 183, 270-72, 319; Bbutasuddhi Tantra, 493 Bhutiprakarana, 44, 128, 130, 140, 145, 155-58, 162, 163, 167, 176, 197, 198, 214, 274, 321, 372, 416, 426, 430, 432, 433, 437, 440, 474, 512. See also Goraksa Samhita; Srikantha Bihar, 61, 64, 147, 364, 391, 398. See also Nalanda btjas: metallic, 6, 197, 369, 493; sabtja and nirbija initiation, 271; seed mantras, 177, 180, 271, 443, 454; subtle matrix of sound, 291, 368; rasa-bija (mercurial seed), 271; yogin's seed, 251 binding. See bandhana bindu: as nasalization, 43; bindusadhana, 139, 425; bindu-vedha, 312; in subtle body, 178, 185, 202, 312, 368, 455, 483; mahabindu, 185, 202, 455; tejobindu, 316. See also phonemes Binduknath, name of a son of Matsyendra, 237 Bindunatha, name of a Rasa Siddha, 83 bipolarity, 17, 23, 28, 38, 42, 46-47, r
43. 2 4 J . 2 5 r - 5 2 . 3 6 ° Birendra, king of Nepal, 339 black holes, 320, 511 bodhana, awakening of mercury, 267, 290; BodhinI, 291; in yogic practice, 501 Bodhgaya. See Bihar bodhisattvas, 35; Manjusri, 60, 89; Nagarjuna, 67-68. See also Avalokitesvara; Buddhist divinities Bogar, 87, 373, 376 Book of Machabees, 205
Bose, Jagadis, 338 Bouillier, Veronique, 508, 5 ^ Brahma, 46, 87, 124, 141, 189-90, 228, 294, 295,197, 315, 316, J I 7 > 3 I g , 326, 392,415,495,50! brahman, 18-20, 33-35, 38, 43, I 0 2 , 147, 185, 208, 212, 3S7,359,36o, 47°, 477, 4 8 z , 4 8 4- See also atman Brahmanas: Gopatha, 23; Kausitaki 503; Satapatha, 11, 32, 362 brabmadvara. See doors Brahmagupha. See Kedarnath brabmanda. See cosmic egg brabmarandhra (cleft of brahman- fontanelle), 112, 135, 178, 196,230, 241,247,255,477,485 Brahmayamala Tantra, 79, 1^, 145, 404, 419 breast milk, 21, 256, 340, 452 breath, 22,45,46-47, 174,211,212, 215,227,243,278,279,281,284, 290, 294, 301, 302, 313, 31 g > 3 , 9 i 320, 369, 461, 468, 495 (See also prana); as basis for units of time, 511 (see also matra; paid); control, 45-47- !35> " ° i " 6 , 2 5 0 , 253, 254, 264, 265, 274, 28!, 290, 294, 319, 369, 384, 501 (see also Work in Two Parts) Brhaspati, 285, 323, 324, 3 7 4 Brbat Samhita of Varahamihira, 65 37°, 375, 37 8 Briggs, George Weston, 396, 3 9 9 ) 4 I 4 ) 418, 464 Broach (Bhrgukaccha). See Gujarat Brooks, Douglas, xi, 142, 364, 389 Buddha, 109, 268; serpent couch of, 59; teachings, 20, 32-33, 3 J ) 3 ? 5 > 422
560
,6,
Index
Index
Buddhism and Hinduism. See syncreBuddhism, Hinayana. See Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana. See Mahayana
mercury: bhas-
mrtasutaka
Calukyas of KalyanI, 128, 131, 393, Cambodia. See Southeast Asia Camunda, 152, 163,412
Mahasiddhas Buddhism, tantric. See Vajrayana Bud-
Candabhairavl, 181; Candaghanta, 181; CandakapalinI, 181, 444
dhism Buddhism, Theravada. See Hinayana
Candakaus'ika of Ksemlsvara, 111, 305-7,309,325,329,513
Buddhism Buddhism, Tibetan. See Vajrayana Buddhism Buddhist alchemy, 71-73, 78, 103, 105, 384
Buddhist divinities, 221, 247; fidibuddha, 7 1 , 365, 394; Aksobhya, 35,
Candall: alternate name for
kundalini,
388 cincini (tamarind): name of Kubjika, Cincinimatasarasau-
muccbaya, 88, 231, 356, 386, 388;
datta. See Grub thob
Cincinlsvara, 8 6 - 8 8
Caturbhujamisra, 83
cinnabar, 62, 6 4 - 6 6 , 117, 192, 193,
470
195-96, 198, 206, 247-48, 377,
Cauraiigi[nath], 94, 106-7,
IO
9.
x
3
2 -
380, 387, 446, 449, 450, 480, 501;
33, 239, 294, 296, 297, 298, 351,
in Chinese alchemy, 194, 250, 482. See also darada
caste woman used as tantric con-
Siddha lists, 8 0 - 8 1 , 84, 86, 91-93.
sort, 453, 454, 508. See also Avad-
See also "Pran Sarikall"; Puran
199, 200, 435, 473. See
hurl; D o m b l
Bhagat
tattva
357.438 Candra. See King M o o n Candradvlpa and Candragiri, 73, 89,
dharmakaya, 35; Vairocana, 35;
113, 134, 224, 225, 2 2 9 - 3 3 , 2 3 6 .
Vajrapani, 516; Vajravarahl, 196,
240, 253, 255, 386, 422, 467, 468,
247. See also bodhisattvas; Prajfia-
388 Cikitsasarasamgraha of Varigasena,
88, 194, 450;
394. 4°4> 4 " . 5°7 Caturas'itisiddha Pravrtti of Abhaya-
Catuspitbatantra,
Cikitsasamgraba of Cakrapanidatta, 76,
391, 403, 404, 413, 460, 503-4; in
Candl, Candika, 49, 142, 163, 280,
nasambhava, 35; the Buddha's
434 Caryapadas, 8 1 , 89, 107, 117, 224, 252,
Yang, 372
367; name of a goddess, 152;
70; Amitabha, 35, 109; Amoghavas, 35; Cakra Sarhvara, 196; Rat-
uted to, 126, 132, 160, 415, 417,
Cbou I Tshan Thung Chhi of Wei P o -
name of a plant, 154, 199; out-
siddhi, 35; as divinizations
oitatt-
akh, 289, 296, 501; in Siddha lists, 81-84, 86, 9 2 - 9 3 ; works attrib-
408, 409, 413
Buddhism Buddhism, Siddha traditions of. See
Carpati, 2, 71, 9 1 , 98, 106, 109, 121, 125, 143, 369; "fathered" by G o r -
calcination. Seejarana; masutaka,
Buddhism
I I O - I I , 382,
Cakravarman, king of Kashmir, 308, 309,313,322,507
tism, Hindu-Buddhist
caves, 115, 195, 196, 240, 294, 310, 8
333. 397. 412. 4 5 L 4 ° . 5°°- 5 ' 5 ; Ataka, 246-47; Ca-ri, 216, 247, 45 2 Central Asia, exchanges with India, 2, 62, 66, 251, 298, 377-80, 385,
clan nectar, 79, 101, 137-38, 172, 195, zhoyoni-
clans, Siddha and tantric, 78, 88. See also kula Clementin-Ojha, Catherine, 450 code language, 173 Congress Party, 348 cooking, 20, 186, 207, 221, 232, 283,
Candrakupa, 196, 205, 246, 457
Chambard, Jean-Luc, 362
339. 4 4 6 . 499 Cordier, Palmyr, 363, 380, 387, 401
Buffalo D e m o n , 190
Candrapltha, 73, 230
charismatic impersonation, 387
Corpus Hermeticum, 447
Burma. See Southeast Asia
Candrapuri, 73, 95-96, 230, 330, 422
China, exchanges with India, 2, 53-55,
corresponding hierarchies, 139, 1 8 4 -
paramita; Vajrasattva
cakras, 5, 36, 40, 163, 170, 190, 207, 208, 2 3 0 - 3 1 , 240, 246, 247, 260, 20I
o8
-93> 3°3. 3 > 3
l8_2I
8
> 3 9.
423, 452, 468, 489, 490, 511; of
470,471
471
Candrasena, 82, 125
60-65,
Candravalocana of Matsyendra, 421
376-79, 381-82, 385, 409, 482,
Cort, John, 479
501. See also Hsuan-tsang
cosmic egg, 189, 190, 215, 216, 218,
cannabis, 119; called
korakkar-muli,
412 Caraka Samhita, 13, 20, 52, 76, 117,
Ataka, 246; earliest Indian refer-
186, 215, 327, 356, 373, 459, 490;
ences to six, 73, i n , 134; four
dating of, 361, 370
Buddhist, 42 2 (see also pithas, Buddhist); nine, 90, 367, 423, 485, 495, 496. See also ajna; anahata; muladhara; sahasrara
carana (coursing, chewing of metals by mercury), 268, 492 Caranas (atmospheric cohorts of Siddhas and Vidyadharas), 514
68
. 7 1 - J 9 4 . 2 °3-4> 2 5°>
Chinese alchemy, 53-54, 56, 63-64, 72, 189, 194, 244, 250, 327, 328, 333. 363. 3 7 2 , 376, 378, 384> 455. 470, 476, 479, 482. See also I m m o r tals (China); Ko H u n g
217 passim, 240
295, 326, 450, 463, 510. See also Lokaloka; M e m cranial vault, 28, 39, 4 1 , 45, 150, 170, 201, 202, 211, 216, 218, 230, 231, 233, 2 4 0 - 4 3 , 245-49, 252-55,
Chinese literature, 6 8 - 6 9
277, 293, 301, 308, 312, 319, 320,
Cbos hbyung of Bu-ston, 70, 231, 381,
333. 3 4 ' . 3^7. 4 6 9 . 4 7 i . 477. 4 8 L 506. See also ajna; brabmarandbra;
383,471
5«3
S 62
Index
Index 295; rites, 162, 194, 283, 287, 444,
cranial vault (continued) khecari mudra; lower abdomen;
461, 496, 497. See also kdla-
cremation ground: favorite haunt of tdntrikas, 286, 305-8, 329-30; in
Deccan, 2, 60, 89, 97, 103, 106, I I I ,
72, 130, 145-46, 155, 161, 170,
37, 197, 229, 366, 454, 473, 500;
187, 198, 204, 267, 342, 371,
temporal, 17-18, 2 3 - 3 2 , 4 1 - 4 2 ,
384
45-47- 215-16, 3 I 7 - l 8 > 3 6 7- See also kalpa; mahdyuga; m o n t h , lunar; transmigration; year, solar
Deoraj, Rawal king of Jaisalmer, 122, 309
Devagiri, Yadava capital, 104-6, 112,
Damara Tantra, 428 damaru, 2 5 0 - 5 1 , 4 8 2 - 8 3 ;
damaruyan-
tra, 248, 250, 482; made of human skulls, 251 ada-desa, 66, 168, 192, 202, 247, 449. 457 Darika, 231-35, 472; in Siddha lists, 81,84
D h a m m a . See Buddha, teachings Dhank, 114, 116, 1 6 5 , 4 0 9 - 1 0 Dhanvantari, 87, 192, 504 Dharamnath, 96, 116, 295, 348, 410 Dhdtukalpa,
Dariyanath, 468
130
Dbdtukriyd or Dhatumanjari,
dars'anas, earrings worn by N a t h Siddhas (see kundalas;
mudrds)
Dasgupta, Shashibhushan, 295 Dasnamis, 99, 254, 399, 487. See also Nagas
417, 419
dhdtus: bodily constituents in fiyurveda, 21-22, 25, 35, 37, 186, 207, 213, 316, 361, 363, 3 9 4 , 4 4 6 , 458, 462, 477, 499 (see also rasa [vital fluid] as chyle; ojas); term for
Datta Patala, 421 Dattagoraksasamvada,
114.393 devaydna. See year, solar Devi, 1 4 2 , 1 4 5 , 1 4 8 , 1 7 1 , 357
darada (name for cinnabar), 247; D a r -
metal, 145, 189, 207, 210, 212, 425
Dattatreya, 2, 92, 99, 113, 132-33. 141,335, 395, 396,412; as incarnation of Visnu, 92, 4 1 1 ; at Abu and Girnar, 117-18, 332-33, 515 Dattatreya Tantra, 131, 133, 155, 159, 419-20 death, 10, 23-25, 28, 32, 42, 187, 222, 232, 233, 254, 274, 279-82, 293,
319, 422, 470, 495. See also matsy-
458, 503 (see also metals) dhdtuvada (transmutational alchemy), 5 ! - 5 5 . 7J> ' 3 ° . H5-4 6 > J 5 3 . ' 5 5 . 161, 187, 204, 305, 393, 409, 446; Dbdtuvddas'dstra, 383 Dhinodar, 96, 410, 482
Dombl; Yoginls Dvivedi, Hazari Prasad, 121, 132, 391, Dyczkowski, Mark, 255, 394, 429 ear-boring, 120, 318-22, 487, 512. See also kundalas; mudrds; N a t h Siddhas, called Kanphatas
digestion, 138; in fiyurvedic theory,
eastern India, 107-110, 134, 163, 385,
21-22, 186, 207, 339-40; yogic
4°3> 4 ° 5 . 435- See
power of, 286. See z\so jdrana
Bihar, U t t a r Pradesh
Digvijaynath, 346
Detienne, Marcel, 123
4 4 1 . See also Avadhuri; Candall;
228, 231, 233, 248, 273-75, 3 OI >
Digby, Simon, 387, 405
Deonath, 3 4 4 - 4 8 , 518
DuG (tantric consort), 168, 177, 256,
475
diaphragmatic retention, 135, 225,
odara
Detha, Inder Dan, 350 daksindyana. See year, solar
limbed Beauty pill, 430; Diamond Maiden, 442
374. 393. 4°8 dehavada (elixir alchemy), 52-54, 7 1 -
subtle body, 40, 282 cycles: food, 30, 32, 367; menstrual,
315, 316, 407, 456; bound mercury, 149-50, 429; Diamond-
vancana; Yama
sahasrdra; trikuta
body, 72, 102, 202, 271, 281, 303,
also
Bengal,
Eastern Transmission. See Trika Kaula
diksa. See initiation
Egg of Brahman. See cosmic egg
Diiinaga, 35
Eighteen Purusas, 180-81
dipana (kindling of mercury), 267, 290,
Eighty-four Siddhas, 69-70, 74, 8 0 -
292 dismemberment, 295-300
8 1 , 8 5 , i 2 3> *ih M 3 . 3 8 5 . 387, 391. See also Grub thob
dissolution, cosmic. See pralaya
Ekalinga Mdhatmya,
Dobbs, Betty, xi
Eliade, Mircea, xiii, 104, 295, 402
dogs, 422
elixir alchemy. See dehavada
Dombl, 308-309, 313, 322, 367, 453,
elixirs, 49, 58, 62, 6 7 - 6 8 , 7 1 , 114-15,
454, 507. See also Avadhuri; C a n dali, DurJ; hamsa;
kundalini
120, 508
119, 122, 145, 153, 155, 166, 186, 188, I94, I98, 213, 222, 238, 239,
Doniger, Wendy, 447
241,259,311,381,385,409,427;
doors (in subtle body), 252-58; brah-
454; sexual fluids as, 137, 453;
madvara, 219, 252, 276, 464, 501; pas'cima dvara, 255. See also nine doors; tenth door dosas ("morbid states," three humors),
three types of, 327 emanation, 17, 206, 219, 241, 263, 291, 368, 4 4 1 , 445, 511. See also srsti; withdrawal and return, yogic
21-23, 2 7 . 29> 1 7°> 283, 362. See
embryo, 201
also mercury, dosas of
eon, cosmic. See kalpa
double mountains. See mountains
Ephthalite Huns, 504
Dowman, Keith, 467
Ernst, Carl, 402
Dragpajets'en,
erotico-mystical practice, 6, 54, 71-72,
371
dhuni, 288-89, 412, 500
dravya. See power substances
dbydna. See meditation
Dumezil, Georges, 286, 512
diamond, 177, 190, 268, 269, 4 3 1 , 517;
Durga, 181, 190, 357
135-39. i 5 2 - 5 4 . 172-73- 176, 198, 199, 201, 207-11, 215,216, 223, 228, 240, 253, 256, 303, 330,
565 Index
Index erotico-mystical practice (continued) 2
6
6
See
also
335' 4 ° 5 . 4 4> 45 > 4 ° bindu-sddhana; vajroli mudra ether, 150, 189, 210-12, 241-43, 272,
of Sadasiva, 35, 255, 440, 457;
nine heavenly bodies, 159. See also
199, 207, 208, 210, 213-14, 216,
fires doctrine, 367; khandhas, 33;
diamond
244, 258-59, 268, 284, 292, 297,
nectars (see extraction); sets of five tattvas, 34. See also extraction, of
* 9 3 . 3 ' 7 . 3 J 9 . 3 ° . 444. 459. 4 >
pancamrta; pancakarmani;
477; as substrate of sound (s'abda),
makara
2
6l
241. See also sunya; vyoma extraction: of pancamrta in Buddhist
panca-
geometric progressions, 294, 315-19, 369, 502 geothermal phenomena, 121, 193, 196, 2
flight: power of, 73, 119, 132, 145, 147, 151, 169, 187, 211, 257, 274,
34. 377. 4 ° 9 . 449- 4 5 ° . 479- See also Gaurl Kund; Jwalamukhl; waters, magical; volcanos
298, 300, 301, 309, 314, 315, 316, 319, 320, 322, 337, 357, 368, 369, 410, 4 1 3 , 427, 4 3 1 , 446, 447, 448, 45°-53> 4 5 8 - 4 6 1 . 4 9 ° . 5 ° 3 . 5°5> 506; amalgamation with mercury, 370, 438, 4 5 1 , 504 (see also
and H i n d u tantra, 73, 1 5 0 - 5 1 ,
279,317,326,330,333,349,431,
G e r m a n o , David, 384
vedba); equated with immortality,
438, 460, 472; of the essence (bcud
4 6 1 ; mercury possessed of, 2 1 1 -
Gheranda Samhitd, 444
6, 13, 189, 269, 492; golden body,
leri) in Tibetan alchemy, 7 1 , 73,
12, 4 6 1 . See also khecari
Ghodacoli, 8 3 , 86, 129, 132, 397, 399,
201, 384, 386
funerary ritual. See death, rites
418 Girnar, 117-19, 196, 245, 260, 3 3 1 -
Fa-hsien, 68, 381, 382
Gadamer, H a n s Georg, 353
femininity, in tantric theory and prac-
Gadanigraha of Sodhala, 434
tice, 139, 199-200, 214, 218, 222, 235, 240, 252, 341, 456, 465. See also sakti
Gahaninath, 9 2 - 9 3 , 113, 157, 160, 162, 396, 399, 403 Gambhlrnath, 398
Filliozat, Jean, 20, 104
ganas (Siva's host), 164, 166, 285; G a n a -
fire, I I , 25, 38, 182, 282; agnisdra, 495;
natha (see Ganesa)
333. 3 9 ^ 4 " . 4 I 2 > 479. 5 J 5 - See also Gomanta; Raivata
102, 271, 281, 303, 315, 456; making (see dhatuvada); man with a golden finger, 3 0 0 - 3 0 1 ; origin myths of, 12, 189-90; smithy of Gorakh, 301
Goa. See Korikana
Gold, Ann Grodzins, 476
Godavari River, 112-14, J34> 393. 4 ° 8
Gold, Daniel, 388
Goddess: clan nectar streams from
Gomanta, 331-33. See also Girnar;
w o m b of, 101, 138, 146; cult of, 4, 49 (see also Sakta sects and sectari-
Raivata Goplcand, 9 2 - 9 3 , 109, 117-18, 132,
anism; worship, tantric); in Vedic
238, 244, 261, 275, 280, 283, 2 9 4 -
sources, 364; linga-like images of,
96, 297, 299, 300, 301, 369, 374,
brahmagni, 282; crematory, 498; di-
Gandavyuha, 60
gestive (dhdtvagni), 186; of desire
Gandhakakalpa,
(kdmdgni), 284, 463; of time (ka-
Gandharvas, 10, 153, 331, 462
500; menses of in August, 473; re-
397, 4 1 1 , 412, 4 7 1 , 476, 499, 502,
lagni), 40, 221, 2 3 2 - 3 3 , 282, 339,
Gandhi, Mohandas, 348
lationship to Matsyendra/Mlna,
503,505,516,517
362, 463, 472; of yoga (yogdgni),
Ganesa, 157, 159, 325, 397, 417, 513
223, 225; relationship to Siva, 5,
39, 220, 232, 233, 240, 282, 284,
Ganges River (Gariga), m , 113, 189,
3 5 , 5 4 , 1 2 8 , 143, 145, 1 5 8 , 1 7 3 .
130, 419
289, 445, 463, 499, 505; three
190, 191, 225-34 passim, 240,
types of sacrificial, 362. See also
246, 277, 468, 470, 480, 490
Agni; Kalagnirudra; sacrifice, Vedic
garbhadruti (internal flux of mercury in metals), 268, 492
fish, 91, 2 2 9 - 3 1 , 466, 4 7 1 ; Benares has shape of, 225. See also Kaivartta; Lul-pa; Matsyendra; matsyodara; Mlna five, 16, 32-36; breaths, 22, 38, 489; elements, 18-20, 32, 3 4 - 3 5 , 150,
Garuda, 190, 213, 462; Garuda Tantras, 419
251, 253, 256, 367, 4 2 1 , 457, 462, 464, 466, 493 (see also Siva, rela-
275, 278, 280, 286, 287, 289, 295,
tionship to the Goddess); sexual
296, 299, 300, 301, 302, 310, 313,
emissions become arsenic, mica,
319, 320, 321, 343, 347, 391, 397,
sulfur, 187, 189, 192-93, 198, 210,
400, 404, 406, 414, 429, 4 5 1 , 453, 456, 460, 465, 468, 475, 476, 488,
gatis. See mercury, gatis of
as subtle body of, 255; w o m b -
Gaurl, 146, 197, 256, 296, 345, 440;
caves of (see caves). See also kun-
as a Siddha demigod, 107-9, 335.
G a u r i Kund, 196, 245
240, 272, 293, 317, 319, 320, 444,
gemstones, 145, 148, 190, 194, 209,
445. 4 5 . 459. 497. 510. 5 7> faces
195, 219, 223, 228, 231, 235-39, 242-45, 249, 251, 255, 261, 264,
497, 500, 503, 504, 506, 512, 517;
Geber, 447
X
128, 134, 143, 156-57, 160, 162,
176, 211-12, 220, 224, 235, 247,
212, 234, 246, 258, 351; universe
gas vents. See geothermal phenomena
170, 176, 180, 185, 190, 206-10, 8
Gorakh, 2, 9, 57, 74, 94, 106, 113, 119,
289, 394, 409, 417; identified with
dalini; sakti; and names of individual
339; as a Vidyadhara, 99, 333; at
goddesses
Abu and Girnar, 117, 332, 333,
gold, 6, 9, 5 1 , 68, 137, 146, 150, 177, 183, 188, 1 9 0 - 9 1 , 194, 195, 198,
412, 515; birth of, 288; founder of N a t h sampradaya, 95-100; Gorakh
S 66
567
Index
Index
G o r a k h {continued) Tilla/Tileti, 106, 118, 299, 346, 412, 500; in Siddha lists, 8 0 - 8 1 ,
Goras Ganes Gusti, 460
gutikds (mercurial pills, globules), 147,
Goudriaan, Teun, 432
153, 164, 166, 194, 315, 320, 370,
Govinda, 125-26, 158; in Siddha lists,
450, 500; gutikd bandha, 211, 258,
Himachal Pradesh, 121, 126, 193, 234. Seealso Jwalamukhi Himalayas, 63, 112, 143, 157, 163,
8 4 - 8 5 , 87, 91-93; in Tibetan tradi-
82, 84, 86, 9 1 . See also Rasahrddya
277, 287, 300, 322, 352, 487, 496;
191, 1 9 3 . 2 2 5 , 2 3 8 , 3 0 3 , 3 3 3 , 3 3 5 ,
tions, 107-8, 403; in Western
Tantra
siddhi-gutikd, 262, 487, 496;
339,351,405,475,480
vydghri-gutikd,
Transmission sources, 386; liter-
grace. See prasada
ary works in Sanskrit, 131, 1 3 9 -
granthis (knots obstructing medial
4 1 , 418 (see also individual titles of
channel), 279, 496, 501
Gorakh s -works); metaphysical system of, 511; on the Nepali one rupee coin 311; smithy of, 301-2;
grdsa (swallowing of metals, minerals by mercury), 6, 256, 268, 292,
south Indian traditions of, 87,
452. 492 Greer, Patricia, 482
102-3, i n , 131, 3 9 6 , 4 0 1 , 4 0 7 ,
gross body, 18-19,
412; (spurious) guru-disciple rela-
Grubthob,
452
Hadi-pa, 92, 241, 280, 295-99. See also Jalandhara[-nath] hailstorms, controlled by N a t h Siddhas, 121 Hall, Fitz-Edward, 418
2
hamsa, 211, 218, 242, 278, 3 0 8 , 4 6 1 ,
°7
74, 107-9,
I2<
>, 224, 383,
496; hamsa-ga (mercury lost
Hinayana Buddhism, 270, 355, 375, 494 Hiiiglaj Devi, 66, 121-22, 196, 205, 235-46, 255, 260, 3 1 1 , 4 1 4 , 4 5 1 , 457, 464, 479, 480, 488; N a t h Siddhas custodians of, 205, 4 5 1 , 464. See also nummelite hingula. See cinnabar hot springs. See geothermal phe-
tionship with Matsyendra, 85,
386, 390, 397, 403, 467, 503; list
through evaporation), 209, 444,
139, 467; theories concerning
of Mahasiddhas in, 8 0 - 8 1 , 8 4 - 8 5 ,
461; Hamsl (Goosie), 308, 322;
Hsuan-tsang, 62, 67, 69, 75-76, 118,
Hamsesvari, 260. See also mantras
165, 331. 377-515 Hududal- 'Alam, 380
Buddhist origins of, 107-9; vernacular works, 140, 242, 260 (see also bank of Gorakh); worshipped as deity, 94, 107-9, 335. 339. 35° G o r a k h bdnis. See banis of G o r a k h
87. 470 Griinwedel, Albert, 67 Guga Chauhan (Guga Plr; G u r u
H a n u m a n , 475 haratdla. See orpiment
Guga), 59, 243, 289, 333, 374,
Hardwar, 98, 345, 349-50, 435, 512
Ibn Battuta, 370
465, 500
Hariscandra, king of Ayodhya, 304-7,
I-Ching, 62, 387
Gorakh Bodh, 485, 484, 488
Guhyasamdja Tantra, 385, 422
Gorakh Vpanisad, 9 1 , 140
Gujarat, 6 2 - 6 5 , ^9> 9 6 - 9 8 , 104, 106,
325 Harita Rasi, 120-22, 3 1 1 , 4 1 3
Gorakhnath. See Gorakh
109-110, 114-18, 158, 159, 165,
Harivams'a, 3 3 2 - 3 3 , 515
Gorakhpur, 109, 333, 420; N a t h m o n -
225, 245, 331-32, 336, 337, 4 1 0 -
Hariyana, 121
J
Harsacarita of Banabhatta, 67, 310,
astery at, 98, 100, 196, 346, 347, 398, 500 Goraksa Paddhati, 141, 319, 321 Goraksa Samhita, 126, 1 3 9 - 4 1 , 156-57, 312, 321, 426, 432, 433. See also Bhutiprakarana Goraksa Siddhanta Samgraha, 98, 141,
394. 4'8 Goraksa Vijay of Sheikh Fayzulla, 106,
nomena
3 . 434. 5 ° 5 . S ^ G u ) 3 1 " 3 1 Ayurved University, 391, 437. See also Dhank; Girnar; Pattan gunas, 21, 27, 190, 210, 2 8 3 , 4 4 5 , 4 5 0 , 461 Gupta, Sanjukta, 337 guptarog, 26, 339-43 guru, 143, 145, 162, 257, 283, 285, 286, 306, 312, 313, 321, 322, 324,
2
3 5.5i5 Hathayogapradipika of Svatmaraman, 80, 140, 170, 173, 202, 220, 245, 2
ids. See nddis immobilization. See stabilization and stability immortality, 7, 24, 38, 4 5 , 5 2 - 5 5 , 106, 119, 138, 143, 145, 167, 173, 174, 184, 188, 192, 195, 200, 202, 222, 239, 241, 243, 252-55, 257, 264, 274, 279, 281, 282, 283, 285, 286,
7 3 - 7 7 . 281, 293, 369, 391, 418,
292, 293, 294, 296, 301, 308, 319,
421, 423; list of Mahasiddhas in,
321,324,327,330,315,319,431,
83-86, 129, 160, 470
439, 453, 4 8 1 ; in the Vedas, 1 0 -
Heesterman, Jan, 269, 348 herbs, 58, 145, 153, 154, 184, 194,
11, 13. See also death; dehavdda Immortals (China), 6 3 , 295, 327-28,
332, 446, 487; "alternation of gen-
199. 238, 257. 259, 266, 267, 277,
Goraksanatha. See Gorakh
erations" with disciple, 269, 286,
300, 350, 351, 371, 420, 429, 433,
Indika of Ctesias, 205, 246
Goraksasahasrandmastotra, 422, 472
466, 493, 512; Four Gurus, 181,
Indo-European mythology, 205, 285,
Goraksasataka, 85, 141, 169, 228, 250,
324, 352, 394. See also param-
443. 446> 453. 454. 4<5i, 5°5! sixty-four divine, 158, 160, 168, 429
108, 236, 295, 395, 460, 466, 502
253.254.324.467
pards; yuganathas
334
457,462,472,497,512 Indra, 46, 189, 259, 278-79, 417, 4 4 1 ,
5 6S
5«9
Index
Index
jdrana (digestion of metals by mercury;
Indra (continued) 462, 466, 499; tin produced from
calcination of mercury), 149, 268, 282, 292, 293, 299, 300, 492. See
seed of, 190 Indus River, 468, 4 9 1 . See also Sind initiation, 27, 37, 143, 145, 162, 169, J
i73. '75. 79.
l8z
2
2
. 3 9 . 245. 57>
270, 271, 273, 280, 281, 283, 284,
also khecari; mercury,
Jayadrathayamala
455. 4 5> 4 > 4 4 . 4
86
8
. 4 9. 49°.
4 9 3 , 500, 508, 509, 513; and spitting, 120, ] i o - i 3 , 321, 343, 413, 508; by penetration (see vedha, ved~ ha[mayf diksd]); role of sublimated sexual fluids in, 138, 309, 313; sabija and nirbija forms, 271
of Aryasura, 58 Tantra, 136, 150-51,
Jhelum, 62, 106, 239, 287, 412, 500, jholJ (yogin's wallet), 289, 299, 351, (bodily liberation, immortal-
ity), 2, 5, 102, 143, 145, 147, 155, 162, 173-74, 185, 303, 427, 514. See also immortality; moksa; pardof Matsyendra, 386, 4 2 1 ,
founded b y j a b i r ibn Hayyan), 54, 204, 447, 456
2, 53. 57.
. «4
35
Jndnesvariof
Jnanesvara, 95, 113, 160,
Jodhpur, 346, 350, 391, 416, 418. See
Jainism, tantric and siddha traditions, 66
Jndnasiddhi,
395. 3 9 6 . 399- 4 ° 8 - 4 6 6
Jain alchemy, 114-19, 376 _I
9>
2
8
9 . 33*"
34. 37L 3 7 6 . 475. 498> 5*5- See also syncretism, Hindu-Jain
kdldgni. See fire
Kadall (Plantain): City, 113; Forest,
Kalagnirudra, 40, 215, 220, 232-33,
also Madana
261, 466, 474, 489, 502, 504 (see 296, 475. See also Kingdom of Kadalimanjundtha
also Mahamandir; M a n Singh Li-
Mdbdtmya,
113
Kddambari of Banabhatta, 53, 62 Kadri, 86, 9 4 - 9 7 , 109-10, 396, 404, 406, 474
Jogis, 8-9, 50, 52, 56, 59, 93, 95, 9 8 99, I O I , 107-9,
IJ
6'
I22
. '30,
name endings of, 413 (see also Pasupatas) 367-68, 475, 477; amrta kala, 37-38; nivrttikald,
39
kdla-vancana (skewing Time), 42, 145, 154, 167, 222, 255, 280, 475, 497
298, 475, 488
Kali, 79, 89, 152, 286, 357, 416, 438, 444; circle of Kalis, 291; Guhya-
475 kajjali (black mercuric sulphide) 267,
kall, 152; Kali Tantra, 163; mantra (see mantras) kalpa, 3, 17, 42, 4 6 - 4 7 , 215-16, 251,
300, 388, 420, 449; Forest of,
318, 326 (see also cycles, temporal);
238-39, 299-300, 476, 505
kalpa sddhana (see reversal, yogic).
Kakacandesvarl, 127, 152, 163,416; in Siddha lists, 86
brary
240, 367, 472; Siva Kalaghna, 440 Kalamukhas, 97-98, 102, n o ; -rasi
kalds (lunar digits), 18, 25, 3 6 - 4 3 , 170,
Kaivartta, subcaste of fishermen, 467,
429,511 Jabirians (Persian alchemical school
45<5, 5°3 Kacch. See Gujarat
Kailash, M o u n t , 152, 225, 260, 284,
mukti Jndnakdrika
Kalacuris of Tripura, 147-48, 428. See
Women.
520 jivanmukti
Kabfr, 85, 233, 238, 242, 243, 404,
also kajjali); Kingdom, 236-37,
504
184, 281; prdndgnihotra, 281, 498 Isvara, 127, 152, 229, 315, 416, 501
Kala, G o d of Death. See Yama Kalacakra Tantra, 71, 105, 148, 380,
113, 162, 223, 234, 238-39, 240,
404, 42 2
internalization of the sacrifice, 13, 18, Isana, 1 7 8 , 2 5 9 , 4 9 5
See linga
161, 164; name of a work in the Tanjur, 383
384, 402, 438, 454, 488, 508
332.Si5
Jdtakamdld
8
jyotirlingas.
436
mrtasutaka
285, 286, 289, 303, 304, 306, 322, 8l
$iq;jvalamukhi-bida,
449;jvdlamukhi-rasa,
mrtabhasma/
Jarasandha, mythic king of Kathiawar,
323, 344, 363, 391, 437, 444, 453, 6
Jwalamukhl, 234,
Kakacandesvarimata,
Kama, 232, 284, 289, 463 Kamakhya/Kamaksl. See Kamarupa
if],
2
130-31, 145, 6
' 5 ~ 5 5 . "59. 160. i 3> 164, 166,
Kamala, Queen of the Plantain Forest, 236-37,297,474
170, 283, 309, 311; Muslim, 311,
167, 176, 209, 324, 371, 416, 420, 428,430,431,453,481,512
374, 396, 397, 403, 425, 460, 473,
345. 349. 35°. 37°. 393. 399. 4 ° 6 . 414, 448, 489, 504; subcastes of,
Kakacandlsvara, 83, 127
36, 240, 2 4 4 - 4 5 , 260, 386, 435,
476, 502, 503, 508; in Siddha
399. 4 ° 4
Kdkacandisvara Kalpa Tantra, 152, 416,
451, 460, 466, 467, 473, 475, 479,
Jalandara[-nath]/Jalandhari[-pa], 9 8 100, 106-8, 244, 261, 295, 296,
lists, 8 1 , 84, 86, 9 1 , 9 2 - 9 3 ; jdlandhara bandha (see bandhana); Jalan-
Joshi, Damodar, xiii, 436, 446, 458, 491, 502
428,430
Kamarupa (Assam), 62, 73, 89, 108, 115, 134, 195-96, 223, 224, 2 3 4 -
480, 482, 488, 495; location in sub-
Kaksaputa Tantra of Siddha Nagarjuna,
dhara pitha, 260, 496; literary out-
Joshi, Shantilal Pranjivan, 4 1 0
76, 104, 112, 114, 116, 1 5 5 , 4 1 9 ,
put, 132, 140; name of a demon,
Juna Akhada. See Nagas
435; adapted from Siddha Khanda
93, 116. See also Hadi-pa
Junagadh. See Gujarat
of the Rasaratnakara,
129, 131,
tle body, 112, 163, 239, 389, 467; name of a siddhi, 317, 330, 514 Kambali, name of a Siddha, 82, 87, 124, 390
57° Index Kanci. See Tamil Nadu kancukas, 213-14, 283, 462 Kaneri. See Kanha-pa Kanha-pa, 106-9, 236> 296> 297> 299> 396> 397, 399- 4°°> 4 6 0 . 473> 5°3> 507; in Siddha lists, 81, 83-84, 92~93 Kanjur, 383, 472 Kanphatas. See Nath Siddhas Kanthadl, 98, 400; in Siddha lists, 81, 83, 86, 91-92, 498 Kapali[-pa], in Siddha lists, 81-82, 84, 86, 127, 390 Kapalika: alchemical method, 148, 166, 173, 417, 427, 428; Buddhist Kapalika-Yoginl cult, 136; name of a Rasa Siddha, 82, 127, 417 Kapalikas, 7-9, 73, 97-99, 102, 107-8, I I O - I I , 127, 135-36, 142-43, 169, 228, 238, 305, 306, 307, 310, 321, 325, 334, 375, 386, 399, 404, 405, 477, 507, 513. See also Vidya Pltha karma, 3, 29, 42, 182, 185, 286, 497, l
Sl Karnari[-pa], 69, 71, 81, 91-92, 132. See also Aryadeva; Kanha-pa Karnataka, 87, 94-97, 103, n o , 113, '34, H 7 . 392> 393- 39 6 , 4OI> 4 0 6 407, 408, 422. See also Kadri; Vijayanagara (Hampi) Karttikeya. See Skanda Kashmir, 60, 66, 97, 103, 106, 114, 179, 192, 306, 308, 381, 397, 424, 431,444,514 Kathdsaritsdgara of Somadeva, 306, 3*5, 355. 4°7> 4r3> 4J5> 456> 5 I 3See also Vetalapancavims'ati Kathiawar. See Gujarat
57' Index
Kathmandu [Valley], 62, 89, 96, 112, 311, 339, 343. 350-5i>378, 392> 393, 39<5, 4°7> 422> 438> 442> 5°°> 519. See also Pasupatinath KaulaMata, 151 Kaulajndnanirnaya of Matsyendra, 73, 88, 112, 133-36, 138, 145, 166, 223, 228, 230, 232, 233, 313, 3245> 37J» 4 2I > 4 22_2 3> 432> 47L 513; early description of six cakras in, 134-35 Kaulas and Kaulism, 79, 88, 90, 135— 37, 143, 158, 171-73, 181-82, 199, 228, 229, 239, 256, 291, 325, 332, 388, 432, 437, 440, 442, 447, 473, 481, 486, 489, 494. See also Krama; kula; Siddha Kaula; Srlvidya; Trika Kaula; Western Transmission; YoginI Kaula kaula-sadbhava. See clan nectar Kauldvalinirnaya of Jnananandagiri 2
Paramahamsa, 291, 501 Kautukacintdmani of Pratapadeva, 131 kavi (alchemical wizard), 13, 154, 159, 286, 323-24, 359, 374, 499, 51 2 Kaviraj, Gopinath, 139, 418, 425, 481 Kavya Usanas, 285-86, 323, 374, 499, 5'2 Kayanath, 287-88, 500 Keddrakhanda, 396 Kedarnath, 175, 193, 196, 245-46, 254, 260, 331, 351, 468, 480, 484, 488, 49° Kerala, 112, 155 KetakI, 295-96, 503 kha. See ether Khan, Dominique-Sila, 468
khdnepdne (vernacular term for siddhi), '58,433 khecara, 253; Khecari (name of a DutT in alchemical mandalas), 441; khecari cakra, 198, 253, 484; khecari gutikd, 153, 316, 427, 430, 487, 496; khecarijarana, 292, 326; khecari kula, 443, 461; khecari mantra, 170, 253; khecari mudra, 135, 146, 150, 158-59, 170, 173, 230, 252, 2
54> 257> 258> 276> 481, 483, 487, 512; khecari sakti, 487; khecari siddhi (see flight, power of) Khecari Vidya, 146, 169-70, 253, 324, 370, 484, 509 Kingdom of Women, 119, 139, 219, 223, 236, 251, 466, 489. See also Kadall Kirandgama, 213, 397 Kiratas, 147-48 Ko Hung, Chinese alchemist, 64 koans, 501 Kolff, Dirk, 345 Koiiganar, name of a Siddha, 61, 87, i n ; works attributed to, 202 Konkana, consort of Macchanda in Siddha Cakra, 89, 135 Konkana, west coast of India, 73, 88, 91,94,230,393 Korikanesvara, name of a Siddha, 8 6 89, 168 Korakkar. See Gorakh, south Indian traditions of Kosinski, Jerzy, 455 Krama, 79, 181, 291, 416 kramana (progression of mercury), 149, 268, 492 Kraus, Paul, 457 Kriya Tantras, 129, 131, 146, 152-54,
160, 162, 165, 308, 397, 409, 41820, 428, 431, 432, 442, 496. See also Kautukacintdmani of Pratapadeva; Kriydkdlagunottara Kriydkdlagunottara, 129, 131, 151 Kriyatantrasamucchayl, in Rasa Siddha lists, 83, 129 Krsna, 410, 515 Ksantaslla, name of a tantrika in the Vetalapancavims'ati, 306, 307 Ksemaraja, disciple of Abhinavagupta, 136, 138, 142, 178,418,465 ksetrikarana (preparation of the body in alchemy and fiyurveda), 266, 270-71 Kubera, 58, 259, 415 Kubjika, goddess of Western Transmission, 2, 79, 88-89, 9J> J34-35> 151, 168, 180, 194, 255, 390, 443, 481; kubjika mudra, 429; Kubjika the name of Buddhist Mahasiddha, 74, 387. See also mantras; Western Transmission Kubjikdmata, 88, 90, 105, 134-35, J45> 180, 230, 233, 260, 386, 392, 422, 4 2 3>47i Kubjikdnitydhnikatilaka, 73, 88, 91, 181, 2
3°, 33°- 386, 39 2 >4 2 2 Kubjikdpujdpaddhati, 421 kula, 200; as tantric clan or lineage, 35, 137-38, 172,210,330,357,443, 460, 461 (see also khecari kula); kula-parvata, 112; kula-siddhas, 324, 444; kulaydga, 255; Kulesvara and Kulesvari, 135; term for early tantrism of the Vidya Pltha, 73, 88, 90, 101, 136, 224, 230, 438, 5i7 kuladravya. See clan nectar
S7>
573
Index
Index
kuldmrta. See clan nectar Kuldnanda Tantra of Matsyendra, 152, 421,430 Kuldrnava Tantra, 92, 145, 312, 314, 332,356,367,389,415,438 Kulavira Tantra of Matsyendra, 421 Kumara. See Skanda Kumara Tantra of Ravana, 58, 125, 150-51.373 kumbhaka. See diaphragmatic retention kundagolaka, 154, 198, 424, 453 kundalas (earrings worn by Nath Siddhas and other Saiva sectarians), 99-100, 107, 400, 403. See also mudras kundalim, 4, 79, 163, 170, 195, 198200, 208, 218-22, 225, 233, 234,
235. 2 39. 243> 247> 25l> 2 5 2 . 2 54. 255, 256, 263, 276, 289, 290, 293, 308, 312, 313, 320, 322, 367, 450, 464, 465, 468, 470, 471, 485, 486, 489, 501; waking and sleeping of, 216-22, 232, 234, 240, 291, 319, 367,476,511 kundas. See waters, magical kurpa. See santskdras Kuruksetra, 91 kutipraves'a ("entering the hut"; summum of Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy), 26-27, l69> 245> 258> 273, 364, 366, 378, 479, 484, 491; structure of the kutt, 364 laboratory, alchemical, 140, 145, 158, 176, 180, 182, 194, 196, 222, 245, 258-60, 487 laboratory assistant, 150, 158, 162, 167, 172, 196, 198,452
Lakullsa, Pasupata founder, 97, 126, 474 Lalitavistara, 152 Lalla (Lai Ded), Kashmiri mystic, 250, 482, 505 laya. See resorption lead (ndga), 189, 190, 207, 208, 214, 216, 284, 431, 447, 452, 458, 459, 463. See also Serpents left side of body, 230-32, 251-58. See also linga, western Levi, Sylvain, 104, 393 Life ofApollonius of Philostratus, 205, 457 light: body of, 72; drop of (tejobindu), 316; metaphysics, 385; prakasa, 263, 427; vimarsa, 220, 263, 427 lineages. See paramparas linga, 4, 120, 194, 287, 375, 393, 397, 440, 444, 464; calcinated mercury takes shape of, 194, 292; earliest excavated, 356; Goddess's pinda images have form of, 500; internal to subtle body, 170, 231, 218; jyotirlingas, i l l , 161, 245, 398; mercurial (rasa-linga), 103, 131, 157, 163, 174, 176, 194, 258, 260, 440, 441, 450, 487; moveable, 486; term for cinnabar in south Indian languages, 194; transmutational, i n , 407; "western," 231, 225-56, 464, 471, 476, 486. See also Siva, cult of liquification, 148, 164, 166, 291, 417, 439. See also garbhadruti; bdhyadruti Lohasarvasvam of Suresvara 191, 418 Lohasdstra, 76
lohavdda. See dhdtuvdda Lokaloka, 510 Lokanatha, 70, 94, 128, 142 lower abdomen, 27, 40, 201, 207, 218, 221, 230-31, 234, 240, 249, 253, 308, 312, 367, 454, 481. See also cranial vault; linga, western; muladhdra Lul-pa, 107-9, 397. 4°3> 4 6 7;> n Siddha lists, 80, 84-85, 91, 224, 231; Tibetan translations of name, 224 Luna (Lona; Nona) Chamari, 298300, 403, 453, 484, 504 Macchanda. See Matsyendra Madana, Kalacuri king, 147-48, 428, 437 Madanavinodanighantu of Ramaraja, 436 Madhya Pradesh, 29, 54, 64, 97, 14749. 298> 3 6 4. 37°. 3 8 3. 397- See also Malava; Ujjain Madras. See Tamil Nadu Magee, Michael, 449 magical alchemy, 52-53, 57-66, 72, 74, 76-77, 499. See also anjana; pddalepa; rasa-rasdyana Mahdbhdrata, 43, 60, 121, 238, 248, 285, 331, 367, 371, 375, 410, 414, 422,459,481,499,515 Mahadeva: name of a Rasa Siddha, 83; name of Siva, 155, 398, 414 Mahakala, 49, 71, 98; Mahdkdla Samhitd of Adinatha 421; Mahdkdlayogasdstra, 169; Mahd-kdla Tantrardja,4ji Mahamandir, 344, 346, 508. See also Jodhpur
mahdrasas (primary alchemical reagents), 145, 147-48, 154, 155, 158, 160, 164, 166, 177, 187, 384, 441.446 Maharashtra, 104, 110-14, I 4 I > !47> 160, 178, 391, 393, 408, 477, 515. See also Devagiri; Godavari River Mahasiddhas, 2, 69, 71, 74, 80-82, 84, 87, 89, 92, 99, 101, 106-8, 224, 2
5 J . 367> 386> 395. 4 l8 > 477; " s t of in Hathayogapradipikd, 82, 92. See also Eighty-four Siddhas Mahavidya goddesses, 516 Mahayana Buddhism, 35, 43, 53, 60, 63, 66-70, 72, 105, 151, 201, 455, 501
Mahayana literature, 67, 76, 201, 371, 373,383,381,382,430,516 mahdyuga (unit of time), 46, 215, 318 Mahesvara, 101, 162, 196, 325,495 Mahesvara Siddhas, 2, 77, 99, 101-3, 111-12,145,147,155,372,392, 401
Mahodadhi, 127, 155, 157, 416. See also Rasopanisat Maithili literature, 108, 391, 474. See also Varnaratnakara Malabar coast, 9, 50 Mdlati-Mddhava of Bhavabhuti, 73, i n , 134,423 Malava, 49, 416, 428 MalinI, 176-77, 441, 442. See also Trika Kaula Mallik, Kalyani, 395 Mallikarjuna. See Srisailam Man Singh, king of Marwar, 244, 310, 344-45. 34 8 . 39i. 4 1 2 . 479. 501-
574
575
Index
Index
Man Singh (continued) See also Natha Caritra; Sri Nath Tirthavali Man Singh Library, Jodhpur, 416, 418, 421
179, 180, 444; kali, 179, 181; khecari, 170; kubjika, 180, 429, 444, 461; kulakhecari, 444; mala, 179; Mantresvaras, 134; mula, 179; pranava (Om), 178, 179, 291, 444, 464, 471; rasdnkus'a, 179, 278, 443 (see also Rasarikusi); sakala and niskala, 442; tripura bhairavi, 444; vayu,OA
manas. See mind Mdnasolldsa of Somesvara III "Bhulokamalla," 131, 393,409 mandalas, 54, 78-80, 124, 145, 158, Manu Smrti, 368 168, 175-79, 182-83, x92> 2582<s marana: "fifth state" of consciousness, 59. 384. 389. 4 . 441-43. 445. 498; killing of mercury, metals, 450, 483, 487 Mandavya, name of a Siddha, 82, 125, 390 Maniknath (Manikcandra), name of a Siddha, 289, 295, 333 Manimekhald, 456 Manjunatha, 94 Manjusn. See bodbisattvas Manjusri Mulakalpa. See Mahayana literature Marikanaka, 284 Manthanabhairava, 83, 126, 129, 143, 148, 151, 156, 158, 162, 386, 416, 417, 418, 430; manthanabhairava rasa, 126, 151, 160, 436. See also Bhairava Manthanabhairava Tantra, 88, 150-51, 164, 256, 386, 392, 425, 429, 432 Mantra Pltha, 79, 156, 176, 181, 417. See also Svacchanda Tantra mantras, 49, 54, 59, 139, 143, 152, 154, 155. J57. l63> l 6 9 . x74> !76> r 79~ 83, 209, 220, 271, 280, 287, 293, 299, 310, 417, 423, 439, 443, 490, 517; aghora, 178-79, 181,417, 433, 440, 459; agni, 445; damara, 444; bamsa, 179, 444; kalapaia,
i53» l 6 4 . 2<S6> 2 73. 2 75. 2 8 i , 2 9 ° . 299, 300, 491, 496 (see also mercury: bhasmasutaka, mrtabhasma/ mrtasiltaka; swooned, killed and bound mercury) Marathi literature, 87, 92, 95-96, 332, 391, 395, 408, 411. See also Jiianesvari Marco Polo, 9, 50, 52, 56, 95, 101, 370 mardana (rubbing, trituration of mercury), 148, 266, 273, 299, 300, 409 matra (unit of time), 46, 294, 318, 369, 502 Matrkabheda Tantra, 131, 146, 154, 162-63, V6* J 93. 234> 255> 2 5 6 . 271,325,405,420,449 matrkas. See mother goddesses Mastnath, 244, 501, 518 Matsyendra, 2, 9, 74-75, 95, 100, 106-7, I O 9 . I 2 9 . J 33. i38» '57. 171, 172, 200, 278, 386, 418, 460, 468, 500; as fisherman, 224, 447, 467, 513 (see also Kaivartta); as founder or revealer of Siddha and tantric lineage traditions, 5, 73, 88, 91, 99, 136, 142, 177, 223-24,
229, 231, 324-25, 393, 396, 399, 447. 473. 5I2> 5X3! a s honorific title, 75, 166, 335, 387, 466; Bhairava takes form of, 224, 467; cult of, 94, 224, 414; fourth yugandtha of Siddha Cakra, 135, 181; in Siddha lists, 80, 84-85, 87, 91-93, 400; legends of, 119, 134, 222-40 passim, 244, 251, 261, 296, 297, 298, 299, 412, 451, 475, 476, 503, 504; literary works, 133-36, 421 (see also Kaulajnananirnaya and titles of individual works); matsyendrdsana, 220; names of, 467; praised by Abhinavagupta, 88, 393, 393, 423; (spurious) guru-disciple relationship with Gorakh, 85, 139, 286, 288-89, 32I> 4<>7> 489- See also Acintanatha; fidinath; charismatic impersonation; Lul-pa; matsyodara; Mlna; Siddhanatha Matsyendra Samhitd, 421 Matsyendranath. See Matsyendra matsyodara (fish belly), 88, 135, 138, 222-29 passim, 231-33, 235, 240, 467-70, 490 maya, 220, 222-23, 278, 279, 297, 426, 438; visuddha and asuddha, 102, 178, 210, 213-14 Mayana[-mati], mother of Goplcand, 92-93,280,295-96,517 McDaniel,June, 229 medial channel, 28, 39, 41, 45, 201, 211, 2 l 8 , 219, 221, 2 2 6 - 2 8 , 2 3 I -
33- 2 35. 2 4 i . 243> 2 47. 2 5 2 . 2 54~ 57, 276, 277, 279, 282, 290, 291, 319, 464, 469, 470, 477, 480, 481, 485, 490 meditation, 265
menstrual blood. See cycles, menstrual; sexual fluids mercuric sulphide. See cinnabar; kajjali mercury, 9, 11, 16, 50-52, 70, 143, 147-50, 154, 158-59, 162, 166, I70, 172, 174-75, 222, 234, 235, 248-52, 256, 257, 259, 369, 377, 384. 4°9. 4 2 ° . 428~33> 4 8 i . 49°. 491, 517; as Siva's semen, vital fluid, 5, 14, 25, 36, 104, 146, 188, 190-91, 194, 198, 203, 208, 21214, 221, 246, 248, 265, 284, 289, 300, 316, 326, 439, 440, 442, 443, 448. 449. 45°. 4 6 3. 49 1 . 5°4; hhasmasutaka, 275, 284; chemical behavior of, 6, 277, 314, 357, 370, 4 ' 7 . 453. 454. 4 6 j ; clipping the wings of (paksa-cchedana), 211, 278, 452, 461, 496, 506; complementarity with breath (see Work in Two Parts); dosas of, 162; earliest prescription for internal use, 52; extraction of, 203, 247, 325, 480, 494; five names for, 167, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 194, 197, 200-3,
2
° 5 ~ 8 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 2 , 2 1 3 (see
also misraka; pdrada; rasa; rasendra; suta); five states or phases (avastha), 459; gatis of, 209, 459; gods adulterate with impurities, 192, 213, 264, 449, 490; identified with atman in Rasopanisat, 155; in the subtle body, 209; maritime transport of, 63-66; mrtabhasma/ mrtasiltaka, 207, 289, 300, 267, 282, 329, 330, 331, 491, 495 (see also marana); ores (see cinnabar; kajjali; sindura); origin myth of, 159, 168, 191, 212, 234, 247, 265,
57*
577
Index
Index
mercury (continued) 283, 472; "six-times killed," 105, 166, 292, 402, 502; transHimalayan sources of, 62-66, 69; treated with sexual fluids, 153, 163, 452, 493; used to fortify temple sculpture, 103, 401. See also bandhana; gold, amalgamation with mercury; gutikd; linga, mercurial; mdrana; pdrada; swooned, killed, and bound mercury; Work in Two Parts Meru (Mount), 190, 230, 328, 514, 516; meru-danda, 328 metals, 145, 155, 158, 162, 168, 18891, 206, 208, 214, 216, 224, 240,
259, 264, 267, 268, 314, 315, 316, 319, 326, 376, 384, 440, 441, 446, 447. 458> 459. 49°. 5°3. 5 0 6 ; identified with celestial bodies, 338— 39. See also dhdtus metaphysical categories. See tattvas Meulenbeld, Jan, xiii, 390, 426, 434 Mewar, 120, 345, 412. See also Bappa Rawal mica, 6, 153, 154, 187, 189, 197, 198, 210, 268, 292, 294, 301, 316, 421,
429, 446, 452, 459, 460, 463, 498, 501; as Goddess's sexual emission, 5, 146, 210, 212,442. See also vyoma microcosm-macrocosm-mesocosm, 11, 15-23, 28-29, 33- 3 8 , 46> 7 8 . 139. 184, 186, 202, 218-62 passim, 263, 269, 272, 280, 283, 291, 293, 2
2
6o
6
94. 3 7-34. 349. 3 < 3 7. 447. 463,465,476,488, 511, 519 Mina[-nath], 95, 107, 223, 231, 296,
298- 397. 4*3- 466> 47°. 473. 474! guru-disciple relationship with Gorakh, 85, 139, 228, 467; in Siddha lists, 80, 84-85, 91-93, 251; receives Kaula revelation from Siva, 225, 468. See also Matsyendra mind, 34, 38, 45, 239, 242, 274, 275, 277, 278, 279, 291, 293, 302, 338, 340, 477, 483, 496, 497, 501, 505,
5*7 minerals, 145, 148, 177, 266, 268, 322, 351. 35*. 37°. 417. 42°> 441. 442; origin myths of, 188; essences of (sattvas), 147, 268, 481. See also arsenic; cinnabar; kajjali; nummelite; orpiment; red arsenic; mahdrasas; sindiira; uparasas Misra, Siddhinandan, xiii, 127, 337, 440, 446, 452, 462, 487, 493, 498, 516 misraka (name for mercury), 208 Mitra, Rajendralal, 418 moksa, 102, 143, 145-46, 155, 173, 185, 220,265,279, 304,465 Mongolia. See Central Asia month, lunar, 25-26, 36-44, 46, 248, 277, 318, 340; amdvdsyd (new moon), 36, 38, 197, 229, 244, 250, 306, 307, 366; full, 197 Mookerji, Bhudeb, 402 moon, 11, 18, 21, 23-29, 36-44, 178, 184, 185, 189, 197, 202, 205, 226, 229-32, 242-44, 246, 250-52, 277, 280, 282, 285, 296, 301, 308, 313. 315. 323. 445. 455. 45<*. 457. 468, 471, 478, 482, 514; King Moon, 24-27, 44, 184, 190, 339, 34'. 359. 5'7; Siva and 37, 366,
367, 393. See also CandradvTpa; murcchana (swooning), of mercury, Candragiri; Candrapuri; cranial 266, 273-75, *9°. 492.495; yog10vault; kalds; month, lunar; sun 228, 257,274-75, 495.49 8 - See mother goddesses, 43, 135, 157, 176, also swooned, killed, and bound 324, 361, 424, 457; Seven Sisters, mercury 29, 499 Murthy, K. R. Srikanta, 420, 437 Motinath, 350 Murugan. See Skanda mountains, sacred, 114-19, 327-34. See Mus, Paul, 360 also Abu (Mount); Girnar; Himala- Muslim conquest of India, 49, 70-71, yas; Kedarnath; Meru (Mount); 103-7, 116, 305, 345, 394,402, Srisailam 476 mouth, 193, 200, 212, 252-58,471, Muslims and Hindus. See syncretism, 482, 487; mercury becomes posHindu-Muslim sessed of, 6, 256, 267 (see also grdsa); passage of sublimated sexndda (resonance), 43, 202, 211, 236, ual fluids from mouth to mouth, 251, 274, 280, 291, 301, 444, 456, 137,200,255,312,313, 321, 322, 484, 496, 501; location within subtle body, 178, 368; reversing the, 439; sealing of (see samputa); 293. See also andhata; phonemes Yoginfs upper and lower, 234-35, 2 2 6 6 6 6 nddis (breath and energy channels), H ° . 54. 5 . 454. 4 4. 4 7.47 . i n , 170, 226-28, 232, 247, 251482, 485, 486 (see also kundalini; s'ankini; YoginI; yoni) 54, 257, 260, 273, 276, 277, 282, 301, 319, 321, 464, 469, 480, 495, Mrcchakatika of Sudraka, 60, 422 506; three portrayed as primal SidMrgendrdgama, 134, 491, 501 dhas Sun, Moon, and Fire (see Sidmudras: alchemical seals, 256; ankus'a dhas, three primal). See also banka mudrd, 432, 496; earrings worn by ndla; medial channel; sankhim Nath Siddhas, 281, 299, 310, 321 (see also kundalas); one of the pan- Nagabodhi, 69, 81-82, 104, 124-25, camakdra, 234; sdmbhavi, 248, 481; 390. See also Nagarjuna yogic seals, 220, 265, 274, 276 Nagarjuna, 60, 62, 64-70, 73, 75-76, (see also khecart; kubjikd; vajrolt) 103, 106, I I O - I I , 113-14, 117, muktivdda. See moksa mula bandha. See bandhana and bandhas mulddbdra (the root cakra), 40, 163, 208, 234, 241, 243, 256, 293, 301, 319,469,482,490 Mulanatha, 85, 87-88, 168, 392 Muller-Ortega, Paul, 468
121, 125-26, 131, 133, 143, 15051, 158, 160, 165, 215, 218, 312, 3^7. 333- 339. 378, 380-82, 387, 410,411,414, 415, 422, 430, 464, 516; as Ayurvedic author, 370, 372, 381, 388, 431 (see also Rasavais'esika Sutra); as honorific title,
579 Index
57* Index -ananda, das, pa, 107, 394; Saiva Nagarjuna {continued) and Gorakhnathi lineages, 99, 75, 166, 335, 466; in Siddha lists, 399, 474. See also Aughars; twelve 81-82, 84, 86, 91-93, 164, 397; panths; Rawal; Vairag panth Jain traditions of, 114-19, 480, 505; Nagarjunanath, m , 165; na- Nath Siddhas, xi, 2-4, 6, 9-10, 43, 5 6 57, 63, 66, 73, 86, 88, 102-22, garjuna-varta (eye salve), 76; Sid131, 168, 185, 191, 196, 198, 202, dha Nagarjuna, 69, 74-76, m , 210, 216, 222, 223, 228, 230, 235, 165, 408; Sri[man] Nagarjuna, 76, 238, 241, 242, 244, 251, 254, 258, 155, 164, 435; the bodhisattva, 67261, 280, 287, 288, 289, 294, 295, 68, 381; the Madhyamika philoso297, 298, 318, 349, 352, 385, 391, pher, 66-67, 7<>> I O 4> l&5< 38°! &»saratnakara spuriously attributed 393. 395. 420, 425.465. 478, 481, to, 104-5, I O °i portions of Rudray506; as alchemical authors, 130; as amala Tantra spuriously attributed guardian spirits of sacred mounto, 130, 419. See also Arjun Naga; tains, 332-33, 335, 339; as power charismatic impersonation; Nabrokers, 8, 309-11, 343-49, 398, gnath; and individual works by Na508, 519; called Gorakhnathis, 99; garjuna. called Jogis, 9, 99, 130; called KanNagas, Saiva order, 99, 254, 278, 345, phatas, 9, 99-100, 321, 399, 413; cult of, 374, 414; definition of 381, 398, 484, 500. See also Seryoga, 456; four or five original, pents 210, 236, 296, 460; give sons to Nagnath, 2, 92-93, 98, 414. SeealsoNabarren women, 196; lists of, garjuna 83-86; 91-100, 123; regalia of, Nalanda, 64-65, 68-71, 76, 103-5, 122, 195, 280, 310, 349, 413, 489, 382, 401 501 (see also kundalas; mudras); Nandi[kesvara], name of a Siddha or theories concerning Buddhist orialchemical god, 61, 76, 83, 87, gins of, 104, 106-8. See also Jogis; 126, 129, 143, 157, 158, 160, 375, Nath sampraddya; Nine Naths; 440 twelve, Nath panths; and names of Narayan Nath, 93-94, 396, 399 individual Nath Siddhas Narharinath, xii, 118, 349, 391, 517 Ndtha Caritra of Man Singh, 411, 451, Nath, name for Siva, 99, 166; tide meaning "guru" or "lama" in Bengali Vajrayana, 399 Naxhsampraddya,7,90-100,107,121, 161,162,172,287,309,310,333, 6
8
344.34 .347.39 - 399.4°°.473. 487,500,504,519; householder Naths, 466; name endings in
474.516 Ndthabhyudaya Tantra, 231, 471 National Museum of Denmark, 483 Navandthacaritra of Gaurana, 92, m , 165,407,415 navel, divides upper and lower body, 243
nectar, 5, 76, 173, 184, 190, 192, 199, 207, 212, 285, 299, 300, 309, 313, 320, 328, 349, 355, 437, 455, 462, 481-84, 496, 498, 506; in the Vedas, 10-11, 358; "red-white," 202; three types, 327; yogic generation of, in cranial vault, 28, 3839,41, 218, 221-22, 242-43, 24750, 252-54, 257, 258, 272, 277, 282. See also waters, magical; extraction; clan nectar; soma Needham, Joseph, 63, 204 Neminath/Nimnath, 93, 119, 298, 331-32,399,475 Neoplatonism, 189,490 Nepal, 2, 65, 89, 98, 105, 109, 119, 134, 152,224,251,278,288, 310-12,321,333,349-51,380, 389, 391, 393, 431, 435, 465, 467, 473, 502, 508; Gurkhas in, 310seealso
I I , 3 3 5 » 343-44. 357 ( Prthivinarayan Sah); National Archives, 418, 421, 423, 426, 431, 434, 472. See also Kathmandu [Valley] Nepali literature, 108, 465, 474 Netra Tantra, 178, 418, 419, 442, 501 Newman, John, 384 Nicholas, Ralph, 475 Nllakantha, 97, 126, 142, 221, 447 nine doors, 163, 254, 489, 504. See also tenth door Nine Naths, 85-88, 90-100, 109, 112, 123, 135, 169, 181, 260, 330, 332, 339. 356, 39i. 394. 395. 396> 4o8> 484, 488; identified with Nine Narayanas in Marathi traditions, 395, 411. See also Nath Siddhas, lists of nirvana, 33, 35, 201, 375, 482
Nityananda Siddha, 390, 418 Nityanatha Siddha, 83, 129, 160, 407, 408, 417; "son of ParvatI," 129-30, 160, 418, 435. See also Rasaratnakara; Sabaracintamani Nityasodas'ika Tantra, 163, 394 nivrtti. See withdrawal and return, yogic Nivrttinath, 113, 396 niyamana (regulation, restraint of mercury), 267, 290, 461 numbers and number symbolism, 15-47 passim. See alsofive;geometric progressions; six; sixteen; three; twelve nummelite, 196. nyasa. See worship, tantric Nyingma. See Vajrayana Buddhism Obermiller, Ernst, 471 Obeyesekere, Gananath, 341, 517 Ocean of Milk, 190, 192, 221, 234, 289, 447, 466, 475 oghas ("streams" of Siddhas), 3, 92, 135. 327, 332. 35 6 . 386, 394, 415 ojas (the "eighth dhdtu"), 184, 341, 363, 477,506,517 Old Bengali language, 81, 107, 236, 390. See also Carydpadas Old Kannada language, 140, 407. See also Yogadlpikd Old Punjabi language, 96, 132 Old Rajasthani language, 96, 132 Om. See mantras, pranava Oman, John Campbell, 51-52, 349, 37° opium, 159, 167,434 oral transmission, 2, 145, 161. See also written transmission
5 Ho
,81
Index
Index
Orissa, 98, 147-48, 224, 345, 391, 392,
pardmukti,
102
Peshawar. See Pakistan
Pardparaprakds'ika, 314
434 orpiment (haratdla), 153, 170, 320, 329,331,429,441,453,514
paras patthar (alchemical touchstone),
4°7>4I3
Padmdvat of Mallik M u h a m m a d JayasI, 198, 238, 260-62, 281, 391, 453, 489, 505 Pakistan, 6 2 - 6 3 , 66, 106, 116, 121-22, 204, 311, 374, 380. See also H i n glaj Devi; Punjab; Sind paksa-ccheda. See mercury, clipping the wings of 316-19, 502, 510 Pala dynasty. See Bengal (five treatments of Ay-
urveda), 270 panca-makdra,
Parasurdma Kalpa Sutra, 496 of Abhinavagupta,
163, 172, 180, 210, 220,
489, 511. See also ear-boring; vedha Pietro della Valle, 9 4 - 9 5
pingald. See nddis
41,46-47, 221,251,263,294,
pithas: Buddhist, 72, 260, 385, 389, 482
463 (see also Visnu Narayana); pro-
Pascal, Blaise, 318
(ffetf/fojalandhara; Kamarupa; U d -
voked by dance of Siva and Kali,
pascimamndya. See Western Trans-
diyana); chasing in which a Siva
286; within subtle body, 40. See
linga housed, 258; s'dkta pithas, sa-
pasu, 240, 279, 323, 465. See also vira
cred sites of the Goddess, 9 1 , 112,
Pdsupata Sutras, 360, 397, 513
195, 210, 260, 245, 246, 467, 488
Pasupatas, 7, 9, 49, 97-99, 102, n o ,
(see also worship, tantric); tantric literary classification system, 7 9 80, 181, 389, 424 (see also Mantra
prandydma. See breath, control
418, 499, 515; definition of yoga,
Pltha; Vidya Pltha)
prasdda (gift of grace from god or Sid-
poison; 164-65, 190, 209, 221, 222,
Pasupatinath, 89, 351, 392, 519 pdtana (sublimation, evaporation of mercury), 212, 267, 290; pdtana
176-77, 4 4 1 , 442. See also Trika
yantras (three types of sublimation
Kaula
apparatus), 203, 247-49, 2 5 ^ . 480, 483
37°. 373. 381, 437. 448, 459. 462, 498; Parada-desa, 65, 204, 380;
Patna, 61-62, 64, 76, 104, 378, 382
Pdradakalpa, 130, 419; Pdrada Sam-
Pattan, 116, 295, 348, 411
hitd, 415
Pavannath, 289
Patanjali, 87, 216. See also Yoga Sutras
239, 289, 329, 338, 376, 447, 465, 476; Tantras, 131, 419, 465 (see also Garuda Tantras; Yogaratndvali) power substances, 4, 135, 137, 153,
pravrtti. See withdrawal and return, yogic Prthivlnarayan Sah, Gurkha king of Nepal, 310, 311, 313, 321, 335, 343-44. 348 Pseudo-Zosimus, 203-5, 447 Ptolemy, 205 Punjab, Indian state of, 1, 98, 398; Paki-
nectar; yonitattva Prabandhacintdmani
of Meruturiga, 114,
409, 504 Prabandhakosa, 114, 119 Prabhudeva. See Allama Prabhu
parakdya-pravesa, 236, 474
Persia, exchanges with India, 2, 54,
Prabhulingalila of Pidapatti Somanatha
Persian alchemy, 54, 204. See also Jabi-
dha), 174, 288, 311, 512
158, 163, 167, 173, 183, 198-200,
penetration. See piercing; vedha 205, 246, 247, 378, 409, 446, 449
316, 359, 445, 454. See also breath
323, 430, 433, 454. See also clan
Paradesvara, 157,439
171, 390. See also clans; kula
260, 404, 416, 504 prdna, 22, 39, 184, 185, 200, 211, 226,
118-19, 121-22, 126, 284, 285,
Lakullsa
paramparas, 78, 9 2 - 9 3 , 100, 123, 142,
also samhdra; srsti "Pran Sarikall" of Caurarigi[nath], 133,
310, 325, 334, 375, 393, 397, 4 1 3 ,
Pandeya, Janardana, 156, 356, 390,
Paramesvara, 330
195, 210, 215, 2 1 8 , 4 7 3 , 4 9 2 pralaya (cosmic dissolution), 3, 232-33,
dha, "son of Parvati"
Plantain Forest. See Kadall
pdrada (name for mercury), 188, 208,
materiality), 2 0 - 2 1 , 33-34, 36,
473, 499. See also Nityanatha Sid-
(see also Kalamukhas). See also
Para-Apara-Parapara, 79, 9 1 , 157,
Prakrti (Nature, feminine principle of
289, 296, 297, 317, 326, 463, 513;
pancdmrta. See extraction
panths. See twelve, Nath panths
251 prakdsa. See light
as withdrawal of cosmic yogin, 33,
pitrydna. See year, solar
432, 490, 493
164, 378, 382; and Upaya, 247,
Pigalle, Paris red-light district, 341
397; -rasi name endings of, 121
234,323,424,460
Prajna[-paramita], 67, 72, 104, 152,
pindas, 287, 500
Parvati, 155, 195, 284, 357, 4 5 1 , 468,
mission
pala (measure of time and mass), 294,
piercing, 289, 303, 313, 320, 463; of cakras, 40, 135, 293, 314-18, 319,
4 2 3 . 439.
Paduha-doha of M u n i Ramasirhha, 117
pancakarmani
298, 399, 475 Pardtrimsikdvivarana
452, 4 7 1 , 486; identified with mdtrkas, 291. See also hindu; ndda
Parasnath/Parsvanath, 93, 114, 119, pddalepa, 187, 305
phonemes, 4 3 , 179-80, 274, 367, 368,
Kavi, 111 Prajapati, 12-13, ' 7 . 2 3 . 3 2 ~ 3 3 . l 8 9 . 271, 272, 283, 286, 351, 365, 492
stani state of 62, 239, 298-99, 333. 4 ° 4 . 479. 5 ° ° ( J » also Jhelum) Punjabi literature, 9 2 - 9 3 , 239, 244, 2
9 8 , 333- 476, 5 ° ° . 5 ° 2 - 5°3
Puran Bhagat, 92, 239, 244, 261, 289, 2 9 8 - 3 0 1 , 333, 403, 476, 484, 489, 500, 503, 504. See also Carangi[nath]; wells
J8i
5«3
Index
Index
Puranas: Agni, 396; Bhdgavata, 58, 317, IO
373. 374. 5 > SH> 5 410, 406, 4 1 1 ;
l6
: Bhavisya,
Brahmdvaivarta,
rasacikitsa (mercurial medicine, chemia-
Rdjatarangini of Kalhana, 308 rajayaksma (royal consumption), 2 4 25, 36, 44, 341, 363
o y ) , 55. ! 5 9 .
l62
2
> 175. 37 » 447
Rasacintamani of Anantadeva Suri, 130
Rasaratnasamuccaya of [Jain author] Manikyadeva Suri, 411 Rasaratnasamucchaya of Vagbhatta II,
396; Buddha, 496, 500; eighteen,
Rama, 87, 347
Rasadarpana, 421
124-130, 146, 158, 162, 167-68,
163; Garuda, 125; Kdlikd, 195,
Ramanandis, 121
Rasddhydya of Karikala Yogi, 130
247, 274, 294, 372, 376, 390, 427,
4 5 1 , 476; L/'wgtf, 116, 227, 410,
Rdmdyana, 58, 189, 214, 359, 415; Ben-
Rasahrdaya Tantra of Govinda, 55, 83,
429, 492; lists of Rasa Siddhas in,
470, 494; Mdrkandeya,
141, 425,
429; Matsya, 331, 515; Ndrada,
gali recension, 355;
Irdmdvatdram
of Kampah, 58, 125
386; Padma, 375; Skanda, 117,
Rana Samarsi, king of Mewar, 345
22
ranjana (coloration of metals by mer-
2
1
8
66
6
7> 33> 3 3 - 44 > 4 > 4 95 ^ ~ nudharmottara, 103 Puri (Jagannath). See Orissa purification, 22, 148, 180, 237, 264,
426,431,435,437,492 Rasakalpa, 128, 417, 130
441,451,492
Rasakaumiidi,
184-88, 229, 275, 303, 361, 445;
457, 459, 495. See also bhutasuddhi
as chyle, 2 1 , 185, 207, 340, 436; es-
207, 216, 269-70; transcendent
167, 198, 208, 274, 314, 372, 402,
2 1 0 , 212
Rasakdmadhenu,
265, 266, 269-73, 2 ^ 5 . 2 8 6 , 428, Purusa: Vedic god of sacrifice, 16, 37,
81-84,
cury), 148-49, 259, 268, 384, 417, rasa (vital fluid), 4, n , 24-25, 27-28,
sential compound, 439, 446; name
156, 190, 210, 214
109, 415
Rasakautaka, 448 Rasalu, son of Puran Bhagat, 299-300, 4'3 Rasarikusa (Elephant Goad of M e r tras); name of a Rasa Siddha, 83, 128. See also Bhairava
Prakrti
446; taste, 185, 362; theory of aesthetics, 186; yogic mahdrasa, 200. See also mahdrasas; uparasas
415,447,456,458 Raivata (medieval name for Girnar), 329-32,515 Rdjamdrtanda of King Bhoja of Malava, J
1 3 . 4*9 rajas. See gunas Rajasthan, 93, 98, 103, n o , 118-22, 147, 225, 309, 310, 344, 349, 350, 3^3. 374. 3 9 6 . 398, 399. 4 O J . 4 " . 413, 434, 468, 476, 503, 518. See also Abu (Mount); Jodhpur; M e war
167-68, 171-83 passim, 188, 190, 194, 196, 198, 206, 207, 209, 210, 245, 260, 264, 274, 275, 278, 282,
RasankusI, 128, 155, 159, 168, 174-77, 179-80,258,443,444
4 - 297» 3 0 1 ' 3'5> 3 l 6 > 32°> 3 2 3-
398, 4 0 1 , 4 1 3 , 426, 434, 437, 442, 487, 510; authorship of, 127, 429-30; mention of Siddha Cakra
Rasapaddhati of Bindu, 130, 481
in, 133; possible influence of
rasa-agni-vdyu. See sacrifice, Vedic
Rasapradlpa of Prananatha, 130
KJnNon,
rasa s'dstra (Ayurvedic pharmacy), 5 2 -
Rasaprakasa Sudhakara of Yasodhara
53, 55, 105, 117, 145-46, 188, 292, 361, 371, 372, 388, 400, 415
Raghunathan, N . Sethu, xii, 373, 407,
104, 113-14, 133, 137, 145, 1 4 8 55, 158-59, 160, 162, 163, 164,
324, 326, 327, 328, 363, 374, 396,
271, 274, 283, 303, 327, 370; of
quicksilver. See mercury
'33 Rasarnava, xi, 5, 53-57, 59, 7 1 , 101-2,
28
creator god, 269; smelted ore,
putas. See samputa
Rasaratnavali, of G u r u Datta Siddha,
cury), 155, 182; mantra (see man-
soul in Samkhya, 20, 33-34, 36,
carita, 307
3> '^Oi 190-92, 197,
for mercury, n , 172, 186, 187,
492, 510. See also Prajapati; Puspabhuti, name of a king in the Harsa-
TI
102, 105, 125, 130, 146-49, 155,
Rasa Siddhas, 2 - 5 , 9-10, 14, 99, 1 1 0 T 6
22, 143-44, 4 > 2
l68
2
, 238, 74>
97> 327> 334. 356> 39°. 4 l 8 (see
also names of individual Rasa Siddhas); lists of, 74, 78, 8 0 - 8 7 , 90,
133; tantrism in the,
171-83 passim
Bhatta, 117, 128, 130, 146, 1 5 8 -
Rasarnava Kalpa, 160, 428
60, 375, 434
Rasasanketakalika, of Camundakayas-
Rasarajalaksmi of Visnudeva, 130, 157, 164, 4 0 0 Rasarajasiromani of Parasurama, 130 rasa-rasayana (magical elixir siddhi), 53, 58,70, 187,324,371,420
tha, 130, 400, 448 Rasasara of Govindacarya, 130, 155, 384.431 Rasasiddhanta, 373 Rasasiddhis'dstra of Vyadi, 383, 415
92, 100, 123-31, 159, 167, 187,
Rasaratnadtpika of Ramaraja, 130, 436
Rasasindhu of Visnudeva, 130, 448
429, 433, 4 4 1 ; paucity of evidence
Rasaratnakara of Nityanatha Siddha,
Rasavaisesika Sutra of Bhadant Nagar-
for lineages of, 101; theories con-
104-5, i n , 113, 129-31, 145,
cerning Buddhist origins of,
•55. 157. ' 5 8 . 160-62, 165, 167,
Rasdvatara, 491
104-6; worshipped, 169 (see also
168, 188, 372, 400, 405, 417, 434,
rasaviddhi. See vedha
Siddhas, cult of)
435, 480; list of Rasa Siddhas in,
rasdyana: alchemical elixir, 49, 58, 70,
Rasabhairava, 128-29, 159, 168, 1 7 4 79,258,417,440,442,443
juna, 3 8 1 , 4 3 1
81-83, 124, 160; Mantra or Sid-
76, 137, 305, 327, 374, 393, 427,
dha Khanda of, 129, 161, 164
436, 446 (see also elixirs, rasa-
5*4
5«S
Index
Index rogavada (therapeutic alchemy), 52, 55,
Rathadunda. See Rajasthan
rasayana (continued) rasayana); Ayurvedic elixir or rejuvenation therapy, 13, 25-26, 131, 145, 168, 169, 186, 188, 266, 270, 271,273,303,327,342,356,371,
Ratnaghosa, 82, 84, 104, 124-25, 152,
363; red cow, 36
Rattannath, 278-79, 400, 448 Ravana, 58, 82, 125, 150-51, 373, 374, 415. See also Kumara Tantra
the essence," 73, 386; name of a
Rawal: kingdom, 122; Nath panth, 98,
Tibetan Buddhist inner alchemy, 71, 385; term for alchemy, 14, 188
rasendra, name of mercury, 188, 208; name of Siva-Bhairava, 180
l°>
145-46, 149-51, 154, 155, 158,
12, 119, 171-83 passim, 193, 213, 282, 284, 286, 305, 306, 309, 310,
Ray, Prafulla Candra, 104-5, *5 >
IO
°>
realgar. See red arsenic
23
321,325,330,333,340,345,347,
Rudraydmala Tantra, 130, 145,417,
357. 393. 398, 445. 49<5, 513. 5*5See also Aghoris; Dasnamis; Kapali-
rebirth. See transmigration
428, 452. See also Dhdtukalpa;
red: arsenic (manahsild), 170, 189, 195,
Gandhakakalpa; Paradakalpa; Rasakalpa
198, 199, 202, 209; Matsyendra as, 224, 396, 468
Sabaracintdmani of Nityanatha Siddha,
religious alchemy, typologized, 52-57
129
327, 390, 401, 415, 428, 430, 435;
resorption, 17, 19, 33, 185, 206, 208,
Sabara-pa, 84
Rasendracintdmani, of Dhundhukanatha, 130, 248 Rasendracuddmani of Somadeva, 117, 125-26, 128, 130, 146, 154, 157, 158-60, 167, 168, 169, 187, 190, 191, 2 1 2 , 2 7 4 , 3 7 5 , 3 9 4 , 4 1 5 , 4 2 9 , 434. 439. 4 8 7 . 4 9 * Rasendrakalpadruma of Ramakrsna Bhatta, 130 name of Siva as god of alchemy, 103, 157, 179, 258, 439; Rasesvara Siddhas, 111, 390 Rasesvara Darsana. See
Sarvadarsana-
samgraha Rasopanisat, 102, 146, 155, 157, 381, 410, 416, 4 3 1 ; authorship of, 127. See also Mahodadhi
sacrifice: blood, 29, 89; Vedic, 10-11,
3> 397. 4 l 6 > 4 2 4 . 4 2 6 . 439. 4 4 ° . 462. See also Mrgendrdgama 21
s'dkta ptthas. See pltbas Sakta-Saiva devotionalism. See worship, tantric Sakta sects and sectarianism, 2, 79, 99,
293, 4 4 1 , 458, 463; time of (laya-
15-20, 23-24, 28, 36, 184, 189,
kdla), 316-19. See also emanation;
215, 245, 269-71, 281, 283, 466
101, I I O - I I , 140, 146,171-83 pas-
pralaya; withdrawal and return,
(see also agnicayana); into mouth
sim, 235, 260, 355, 357, 405. See
yogic
of kundalini, 220, 234; rasa-agni-
also Krama; Srlvidya; Trika Kaula;
Ret Kund. See waters, magical 2_
Revana, 8 6 - 8 7 , 9 93> ' 3 3 .
T<
>8, 391,
401 reversal, yogic, 29, 39, 41-42, 201-2, 227, 248, 262-64, 274, 290, 313,
Rasesvara: name of mercury, 187;
kas; Pasupatas; Saiva Siddhanta Saiva Siddhanta, 37, 60, 95-98, 102, 134, 146, 162, 172-73, 177, 182,
Sahara Tantra, 98
211, 2 1 5 , 2 1 9 - 2 3 , 2 3 3 , 2 6 3 , 272,
80, 87, 90, 93, 96-102, 104, 111—
Rudra-Siva. See Siva
160, 161, 162, 164-67, 274, 325, list of Rasa Siddhas in, 81-84
Saiva sects and sectarianism, 7, 9, 60,
rtu-sdtmya,
2
female elements, 192, 193, 194,
l
Peak Water
Bappa Rawal
Rasendra Mangala of Sriman Nagar3~ 2 7>
489 sailodaka. See waters, magical, Rock or
Rtu Kund. See waters, magical
205, 284, 326, 4 5 1 , 453; color of
I2
cakra), 41, 2 4 2 - 4 3 , 245, 293,
Rsyasmga, 203
Rasendra Bhaskara, 191, 210, 214, 408 juna, 76, 104-5,
royal consumption. See rajayaksma
sabasrara (the "thousand-petaled"
121-22, 358, 399, 414. See also
164, 372,401
Rasayana Sastroddbrti of Vyadi, 415
Rosu, Arion, xiii, 370, 401 royal consecration, 304, 309, 322
378, 479, 4 9 1 ; "coming forth of physician in the Harsacarita, 377;
130, 145-46, 161, 267, 271, 431 RohinI: name of a star-maiden, 24, 44,
164
Sadhanamala, 65, 8 1 , 314, 371, 385
321, 508. See also urddhvaretas RgVeda, 10, 17, 37, 211, 216, 242, 278,
vdyu as three elements of, 11-13,
Western Transmission; YoginI
21-26, 32, 4 5 , 184-85, 187, 283,
Kaula
362, 445. See also diksd; internalization of the sacrifice Sadasiva, 152, 162, 206, 416, 438, 450,
218, 222, 230, 243, 257, 312, 355, 367, 423; visarga-s'akti, 256; in left
496, 501; and divinization of tatt-
side of subtle body, 485 (see also
vas, 35; portrayed as mahdpreta in
linga, western); rasa-s'aktis, 442.
478; earliest use of term yoga in,
Kaula iconography, 176-78, 442.
10-20
See also five, faces; Saiva Siddhanta
rice, 196, 289, 299, 351
sadbhdva. See clan nectar
Roberts, John, 468
sadhana (realization, practice), 2, 185,
rodhana (coagulation of mercury, medi-
s'akti (feminine energy), 35, 6 1 , 177,
236, 244, 264, 265, 288, 335, 345;
See also femininity;
kundalini
Sakti (name of the Goddess), 36, 43, 92, 142, 202, 247, 251, 253, 278, 289, 317, 368, 421, 427, 432, 439, 442, 452, 473
tative mind), 267, 290, 291; Rod-
bila-sadhana, 59; nidhi-sddhana, 59.
Saktisangama Tantra, 394, 421
hini, 291
See also reversal, yogic
Saktivijndna
of Somananda, 501
5 Hfi
Index Salivahana; Salwan. See Satavahana, king s'alyatantra (surgery), 55 samddhi, tumulus of Nath Siddha, 94, 2 88, 333, 338, 350, 396, 407, 450, 519; total yogic integration, 45, 61, 215, 218, 221, 253, 265, 290, 369, 472, 483 samarasa (fluid equilibrium), 185, 201, 218,253,445,455,483,506 sdmbhavi, 481. See also Sambhu; mudras Sambhu: name of a Rasa Siddha, 82, 124, 126, 160; name of Siva, 248, 481. samhdra (universal retraction), 227, 232-33, 240. See alsopralaya Samkhya, 17, 20-21, 27, 32-36, 185, 206-10, 213, 240, 270, 458, 510; Samkhya Kdrikas, 357. See also Prakrti; Purusa; tattvas
Sarikara: Advaita Vedanta philosopher, 30-31, 87; name of Siva, 163 Sankaravijaya of Anandagiri, 112, 392, 408, 418 sankini (conch duct), 254-57, 322> 484. 485, 487, 489 Sankrtyayana, Rahul, 404 sannydsa, 281, 497 Santideva, 35 Sdradatilaka of Laksmanadesikendra, 31 2 Saraha-pa, 68-70, 76, 399 sarana (flowing, potentialization of mercury), 268, 299, 300, 316 Sarasvati River, 225-227, 468, 470, 480 sarirayoga. See transubstantiation Sdrngadbara Paddhati, 96, 131, 141, 396 Sdrngadbara Samhitd, 131, 396, 415,
4*o. 437 sampradaya. See Nath sampradaya Sarriganath, 94, 396 samputa (interlocked, encased), 145, Sartre, Jean-Paul, 511 256-57, 268, 282, 294, 299, 454, Sarvadarsana Samgraha of Madhava486, 509 carya, 56, 102, 131, 187, 372, 400 samskdras,: alchemical operations, 44, Sarvaja, 151, 157, 167,430,432 145, 147-48, 155, 158, 159, 166, Sarvajna. See Sarvaja 169, 181, 198, 259, 260, 263-302 Sarvesvararasdyana of Vyadi, 383 passim, 314, 368, 427, 428, 442, Sastri, Radhakrishna, 437 461, 492, 494; term kiirpa used for Satavahana, name of several kings, 67, in Rasopanisat, 155; life-cycle rites, 69, 104, 114, 298, 381, 409, 504 43-44, 264, 271, 491, 493. See also SarJ, 195, 196, 451. See also pithas names of individual samskdras satkarmdni (six purificatory practices of Samundranath, 350 hathayoga) 265, 271 Sanderson, Alexis, xiii, 136, 389, 417, Satrunjaya (Mount), 114-15 Satsdhasrasamhitd, 88, 91, 180, 234, 424> 439- 444. 445. 4 6 5. 5°9 260, 385, 392, 488 Sangitaratnakara of Sarrigadeva, 408 sattva. See gunas Sangye Sonam, 483 sanjivanijalam. See waters, magical sattvas. See minerals
J87 Index Satyanath, 87, 93, 98, 112, 392, 473 saumya. See year, solar Schoterman, J. A., 481, 483 seeds. See bijas semen. See sexual fluids Seneca, 189 Serpents, 58-60, 67, 210-17, 218, 240, 3 2 4. 327. 333. 35°. 46z> 463. 49<5, 501, 504; Nagalata ("Serpentina"), 308, 322; Caraka, Patanjali, and Nagarjuna as incarnations of, 215. See also Ananta; lead; Sesa; snakecharming; Vasuki. Sesa, 59, 215-16, 218-19, 284, 289, 374. 463 sexual fluids, 11, 13-14, 16, 28, 32, 135-40, 146, 163, 172, 183, 184202 passim, 210, 212, 216, 235, 245, 247, 252, 253, 258, 269, 286, 2 94. 3°9> 3 1 2 . 3l6> 438, 447. 45°. 45 2> 455. 4°°. 486, 489, 491; as fuel of yogic transformations, 4-5, 27,39,41,45,72, 173,207,23233. 237> 243> 2 5°. 274> 2 8 5 . 289> 2 93» 3 2 °. 3«» 35 1 . 3 6 0 . 3 6 3.4 2 5> 430 (see also adboretas; urddhvaretas); as end products of digestion,
464, 465, 483, 487, 490. See also erotico-mystical techniques Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, 311-12 shamanism, 295-99 Sharma, Dharmananda, 390, 481 Sharma, Hari Shankar, xiii, 117 Sharma, P. V., 105-6, 126-28, 414, 419 Shastri, Haraprasad, 105, 402, 416 Shastri, Krishna Pal, 336-37 Sialkot. Seejhelum "Siddh Vandanam," list of Siddhas in, 83, 85-86, 391 Siddha: defined by Tirumular, 61; etymology of term, 2 Siddha alchemy, 52, 55-57, 77-78, 100, 109-22 passim; 141-44, 146, 162, 168-70, 188, 263-302 passim, 314-18,327,372,439 Siddha Cakra, 89, 133, 135, 137, 181, 356, 386, 388, 444. See alsoyugandthas Siddha Kaula, 74, 88, 133-34, 171,
423; Siddhamrta Kaula, 133 Siddha Khanda of Rasaratndkara. See Rasaratndkara Siddha maidens. See Siddhas Siddha medicine, 102, 208, 372, 457 2 6 6 as Siddha Siddhdnta Paddhati, attributed to 21, 25-26, 339-4 . 3 °. 3 3; Gorakh and Nityanatha, 129, 141, source of kula continuity, 79, 137 201, 260, 418, 460, 485, 488, 496 (see also clan nectar); ritual conSiddhacaryas. See Mahasiddhas sumption of, 137, 424, 455, 483, siddha-deha. See Siddhas (Perfecti), in509; used in treating mercury, destructible bodies of 153, 158, 433. See also cycles, mensiddhadravya. See power substances strual; kundagolaka; power subSiddhanatha, 73, 88, 230, 386, 418, stances; yonitattva
sexual union, 4-5, 28, 31, 135-39, 157, 158, 162, 194, 198, 199, 220, 234, 235,252,258,323,341,441,453,
5i3 siddbdnjana. See anjana Siddhas (Perfecti): abode of, 3, 150,
589
Index
Index Siddhas (continued) 238, 297, 303, 327-34, 373, 463, 514; acceding to the world of, 3, 6, 52, 56, 244, 265, 303-334 pas-
Sikkim, 109
(see also Ardhanarisvara); relation-
Somnath. See Gujarat
Silburn, Lillian, 235
ship to the m o o n (see moon); re-
sorcery, tantric. See Kriya Tantras
Silk Road, 2, 6 2 - 6 3 , 65, 203, 204, 378
vealer of Tantras, 54, 127, 142,
soteriology, 72, 385
Simhala. See Sri Lanka
145, 161, 172, 223, 225, 229, 236,
soul, individual. See atman
447, 468; Siddhas in retinue of,
soul, universal. See brahman
331, 512; Siddhesvara (temples
sound, body of, 72; substrate of, 291,
sim, 514; as mountains o r m o u n -
Simhdsanadvatrimsika,
tain gods, 327-34; cult of, 2 - 3 ,
Sind, 55, 59, 98, 116, 204, 295, 311,
135, 157, 1 8 0 - 8 1 , 2 9 2 , 3 2 9 , 3 3 5 , 388, 391, 441 (see also Siddha Cakra); divine and semidivine, 2, 57-58, 124, 135-36, 157, 161, 180-81, 323-34 passim, 355, 4 2 1 ,
115, 451
414, 457, 4 9 1 , 505. Seealso Indus
of), 60, 95-96, 103, n o , 367, 375,
River; Pakistan
398; Tripurantaka, 438. See also
sindura (red mercuric oxide, vermillion), 194, 196, 284, 351, 455 Siiighana, Yadava king, 112, 114, 127-
Bhairava; Kalagnirudra; linga; and names of deities identified with Siva
Kadri; Karnataka; Kerala; Kon-
Sircar, D . C , 412
163, 166, 173, 181, 188, 220, 228;
siddhas, 324; indestructible bodies
Sitala (goddess of smallpox), 29
234, 240, 312-25 passim, 331,
Sittars, 2, 58, 6 1 , 65, 76, 9 1 , 99, 105,
322,432,439,465
Siddha maidens, 150, 192, 323,
i n , 125,373,376,394,400-2,
Sivakalpadruma
325, 326, 512; Siddhavidyas, 58;
415, 450; lists of, 87
six: metals, 189, 190; months, 170,
330, 331, 514. Seealso Eighty-four
188, 190, 196, 202, 210, 216, 220,
Siddhas; Mahasiddhas; Mahesvara
221, 232, 2 6 l , 262, 264, 284, 2 8 6 -
Siddhas; N a t h Siddhas; oghas;
89, 296, 297, 298, 307, 312, 318,
Rasa Siddhas; Sittars; sixteen Siddhesvara. See Siva
r
8
3*9. 33 > 393. 4 5 . 4 3 ° . 43 > 439. 4 4 1 , 460, 463, 4 7 1 , 477, 487, 495,
siddbis (supernatural powers), xii, 2, 5, 58, 60, 97, 102, i n , 114, 132, 6 r
2
l6
'37. '45-4 . 53. i57> '> *6h
of Sivanatha, 130, 448
294; rasas, 185; schools of Indian philosophy, 174 sixteen, 17, 3 6 - 4 4 , 365, 368, 392; ad-
4 0 1 , 457, 487 Southern Transmission. See Srividya Spanda Karika of Vasugupta, 222 sparsamani. See transmutation Sri Cakra or Sri Yantra. See mandalas
37, 366; number of women in
Sri Lanka, 55, 6 0 - 6 1 , 119, 126, 236,
dras, 4 3 - 4 4 , 265-69; Siddhas, 85,
163, 173-75, ' 9 7 . 454; earliest im-
91, 169
identified with guru in initiation,
48, 55, 6 1 , 64, 103, 369, 384, 389,
spitting. See initiation
Sivahood); cult of, 4, 9, 98, 143, perial devotees the Kushanas, 398;
lam; Tamil N a d u Southeast Asia, exchanges with India,
4 3 - 4 4 , 265, 4 9 1 ; Mondays vow,
499, 515; becoming a second (see
170, 174, 176, 180, 186, 202, 222,
kana; Malabar coast; Sittars; Srisai-
haras, 366; expansion to eighteen,
Plantain Kingdom, 475; samsk-
242, 262, 263, 265, 274, 284, 294,
168, 169, 307, 372, 376, 379, 382,
Sivahood, 4, 6, 42, 5 2 - 5 3 , 143, 157,
lists of, 74-75; 8 0 - 1 0 1 ; four kula-
Siva, 1 4 , 9 2 - 9 3 , 101, 115, 134, 152,
80, 105-6, n o - i i , 124, 126, 131, 393, 4 3 1 . See also Andhra Pradesh;
28, 167
three primal, 73, 9 1 , 2 3 0 - 3 1 , 329,
93> 477 south India, 49, 53, 55, 6 1 , 67-68, 77,
Siva Samhitd, 324, 325
512, 513; formation of canonical
of, 191, 202, 271, 281, 315, 319;
2
Skanda, 131, 159, 189-91, 224, 329,
359. 37<5, 44°. 44L 447. 448- 472
260, 262, 299, 415, 489 Sri Nath Tirthdvali of M a n Singh, 496, 500 Srikantha, 73, 97-98, 126, 128-29, 131, 133, 158, 230, 2 5 0 , 4 1 6 , 4 1 8 ,
301, 303, 306, 307, 313, 315, 316,
271; location of in subtle body, 4,
snake charming, 99, 222, 350, 399, 519
442, 465; revealer of
3 1 7 , 3 1 9 , 3 2 1 , 325, 3 2 6 , 3 2 9 , 3 3 0 ,
38, 221, 241, 243, 245, 246, 293,
Sodhala, 106, 114. See also Gadani-
ana, 140, 142, 156, 157, 158
331, 4 0 1 , 424, 425, 429, 439, 4 6 1 ,
320, 462; mantra-bija
identified
graha
Bhutiprakar-
Srtmatottara Tantra, 156, 157, 386,
496, 510, 513; called vibhuti, 284,
with semen of, 271; Pine Forest
sodhana. See purification
286, 432, 4 4 1 , 499; early Buddhist
myth of, 285; relationship to
soma: as herbal medicine, 365, 366; as
lists of, 371, 507; subject of Varna
Brahma, Visnu, 46, 141, 146, 159,
moon god, n , 16, 184, 359 (see
Tantras, 419. See also diamond
162, 294, 315, 317; relationship to
also moon); as sacrificial oblation,
255. 33°. 4 l 8 Srlparvata. See Srisailam
body; flight; khanepane; parakdya-
the Goddess, 5, 35-36, 4 3 , 54,
24, 36, 365, 455, 478; as Vedic
Srisailam, 49, 53, 60, 6 8 - 6 9 , 76-77,
128, 143, 145, 158, 173, 176, 185,
draft of immortality, 1 0 - 1 1 , 25,
92, 103-4, 110-12, 136, 152, 161-
Siddhiyoga of Vrnda, 430
195, 2 i i , 214, 224, 235, 247, 251,
28, 189, 232, 242, 243, 259, 285;
62, 164-65, 168, 196, 238, 245,
Siegel, Lee, 496
252, 253, 256, 260, 368, 4 2 1 , 427
theft of, 190, 462.
260, 331, 375, 398, 405, 408, 409,
praves'a; rasa-rasdyana
425.433 Srinatha, 73-74, 9 1 , 129, 135, 230,
590
59" Index
Index Srisailam (continued) 422, 434; site of Mallikarjuna jyotirlinga, I I I , 162, 398, 405, 407, 480, 488 Srividya Kaula, 79, 139, 178, 181, 357, 391. See also Balatripurasundari srsti (cosmic emission), 47, 251, 263, 463. See also emanation; withdrawal and return, yogic stabilization and stability: of breaths, 45, 232, 278; of body, 137, 174, 264, 265, 273, 274, 294, 295, 439; of mercury, 202, 258, 266, 277, 498. See also bandhana
flowers of (puspita gandhaka), 199, 440; origin myth of, 148, 168, 192-93, 221, 234, 325; springs (see geothermal phenomena; waters, magical). See alsoyoni sun, 21, 23-25, 28-29, 38-41, 185, 202, 205, 226, 232, 243, 244, 246, 248, 250-54, 280, 282, 296, 301, 315,318,323,373,445,455,456, 457. 4 6 8, 481. 482, 5°4> 5 J 4; g ° d of generates copper from seed, 190. See also moon Sundarnath Siddha, 339 sunya (void), 43, 106, 209, 211, 241-42,
stars, 24, 315, 323. See also RohinI Stein, Sir Aurel, 309 sthairya. See stabilization and stability sthula s'arfra. See gross body subtle body, 4-5, 19, 138, 185, 207, 218-62 passim, 280, 288, 291, 301,321,327,328,333,385,414, 422, 440, 450, 470, 480, 482, 485, 506; lunar nature of, 18, 30-31; sacred geography of, 112, 218-40. See also cakras; cranial vault; left side of body; linga, western; lower abdomen; matsyodara; Meru; nddis; nine doors; pithas; tenth door; trikuta
53. 295> 4°3. 4 6 *. 477>482, 511; mahasunya, 456; trisunya, 178, 302, 506 Sunyasampadane of Gulura SiddhavTranarayu, 406 Surasena, 82, 104, 125, 433 Surpanath, 86 Susruta Samhita, 52, 76, 210, 356, 37°. 373. 375. 387. 415; dating of, 361 susumna. See medial channel suta (name for mercury), 188, 197, 208, 265, 446, 490 Svacchanda Bhairava, 83, 126, 128-29, 142-43, 156-57, 175, 176, 178-
Sufism, 109, 405 siiksma s'arira. See subtle body sulfur, 6, 11, 16, 50, 143, 146, 154,
J79. 4*7. 424> 432> 434. 442> 5J45 svacchandabhairava rasa, 160,417, 436. See also Bhairava Svacchanda Tantra, 129, 156, 175-176, 178, 329-31, 417, 439, 442, 514 Svacchandasaktyavatara. See Bhutiprakarana svedana (sweating, trituration of mercury), 266, 273 swallowing. See grasa
157. ' 7 ° . 174. i 8 7 . l 8 9 - I9°» '92> 193, 197, 198, 199, 202, 207, 248, 252, 258, 268, 291, 292, 293, 352, 37°. 377. 381, 4°9. 44 1 . 449. 45*. 453, 498, 501; as Goddess's uterine blood, 5, 191, 193, 194; etymology of term gandhaka, 193;
2
Swami Sevananda, 517 swooned, killed, and bound mercury, 6, 144, 146, 149, 158, 159, 162, 274, 384. See also bandhana; marana; mercury; miircchana syncretism, Hindu-Buddhist, 53, 55, 57-59, 61, 66, 70-71, 74, 78, 94, 104-11, 118, 136, 148, 152, 187, 196, 206, 361, 373, 375, 383, 390, 513 (see also Buddhist alchemy; Vajrayana Buddhism; Highest Yoga Tantra); Hindu-Jain, 57, 80, 93, 99, 114-19, 331-34, 399. 4io. 475, 479, 498, 515 (see also Jainism, Siddha and tantric traditions of; Neminath/Nimnath; Parasnath/Parsvanath); Hindu-Muslim, 80, 99, 106, i z i , 171, 205, 228, 238, 311, 399, 403-5 (see also Bauls; Jogis, Muslim; Rawals); Hindu-Sikh, 126; Hindu-Taoist, 62, 71, 196 Tahqiqdt-i-Cisti, 395, 501 Taishang suling dayou miaojing, 2 50 Taittiriya Samhita, 24, 359 Tamil Nadu, 2, 60-61, 63-64, 77, 87, 97, 106, 124, 178, 340, 357, 376, 378, 392, 398, 407, 415, 447, 450, 504 Tanjur, 70-71, 81, 105, 108, 125, 224, 380, 383, 386, 387, 390, 403, 416, 425 Tanti-pa, in Siddha lists, 81, 83-84, 86, 91-92 tantra, etymology of, 1-2 Tantra Maharnava, 91, 113, 394, 408, 4*5 Tantraloka, 73, 88, 137, 225, 312-14,
329, 331, 395, 424. See also Abhinavagupta Tantraraja Tantra, 91, 394, 514 tantric alchemy, 51-55, 72, 78, 104, 109-22 passim, 145, 171-83 passim, 187, 372; "tantric element" in, 139, 141-44 Tao te ching, 62, 377 Taoism and Hinduism. See syncretism, Hindu-Taoist Taoist alchemy. See Chinese alchemy tapas (ascetic ardor), 18, 27, 39, 184, 243, 270, 281, 284, 295. See also thermal energy Tara, 64-65, 69-70, n o , 378, 380, 387, 465, 516; Tara Tantra, 394, 412 Taranatha, 70, 107-8, 383, 403 tattvas, 33-36, 43, 210, 214, 317, 365, 477, 510. See alsofive,elements; Prakrti; Purusa Tayumanavar, 340 Telugu literature, 92-93, m - 1 2 , 369, 429. See also Navanatha Caritra of Gaurana; Sunyasampadane tenth door, 252, 254, 256, 260, 261, 483-85, 489, 504. See also nine doors thermal energy, 13, 39, 284. See also geothermal phenomena; tapas Tibet, exchanges with India, 2, 55, 6 4 66, 69, 80, 105, 196, 247, 251, 379. 380, 384 Tibetan literature, 64, 67-71, 80, 218, 447. See also bCud len gyi man ngag bshadpa of Bo dong; Chos hbyung of Bu-ston; Dragpajets'en; Grub thob; Kanjur, Tanjur, Taranatha
59*
593
Index
Index
time, 23, 28, 42; units of, 46, 317. See also death; kalpa; mdtra; pala; mahdyuga Tintini. See Tanti-pa Tirumular, 61, 76, 87, 375, 412. See also Mulanatha Tod, Colonel James, 122, 344, 345, 412-14
Todala Tantra, 164 transmigration, 18, 29-30, 38, 185, 201, 239, 240, 326, 367 transmutation, 7, 11, 14, 53-55, 68, i n , 122, 137, 147, 149-50, 160, 165, 166, 177, 199, 202, 244, 245, 246, 258, 259, 265-68, 292, 303, 311,314,320,322, 330, 336-39, 35 2 . 37i. 375. 4°7. 45 2 . S°6. 5 " See also dhdtuvdda; paras patthar, vedha transmutational alchemy. See dhatuvada transubstantiation, 7, 11, 14, 53-55, 159, 166, 258, 265, 267, 268, 282, 314,315,324,375,491 Trika Kaula, 4, 36, 73, 79, 89, 135-38, 172, 176, 178, 214, 255, 314, 389, 424, 427, 441, 464, 465, 477. See also Abhinavagupta; Para-AparaParapara; Siddha Cakra trikuta (triple-peak configuration located in cranial vault), 471, 506 Tripathi, Bhagiratha Prasada, 371, 433 Tripurasundarl. See Balatripurasundari Tristhalisetu of Narayana Bhatta, 469 Trita, 465 Trivikrama. See Vikramaditya Tryambaka Pant, 396 Tucci, Giuseppe, 80, 312, 470 Tvastr, 189
twelve: Nath panths, 90, 93-100, n o , 113, 119, 121, 129, 398-99; years, xii, 239, 244, 288, 294, 295, 299,
uttardyana. See year, solar utthapana (resurrection of swooned mercury), 267, 275, 290
300. 345 Uddiyana, Buddhist pttha, 260, 495. See also bandhana and bandhas; plthas Ujjain, 49, 62, 64, 311, 335 ulatd sddhana. See reversal, yogic Uma, 126, 128, 140, 157, 177, 197, 441 unicorn, 203, 205 unmana (beyond mind), 45, 178, 302 Upadhyaya, Nagendranath, 404 Upadhyaya, Yadunandan, 336 Upanisads: Aitareya, 511; Brhaddranyaka, 17, 213; Chdndogya, 27, 30, 207, 367, 459; Kdtbaka, 206, 212, 241; Maitri, 20, 28, 185, 253; One Hundred Eight, 131, 420; Prdndgnihotra, 497; Prasna, 20; Taittirfya, 32; Yogadars'ana, 469; Yogakundali, 169, 313; Yogasikha, 131, 420; Yogatattva, 371 uparasas (secondary alchemical reagents), 145, 147-48, 154, 155, 159, 160, 164, 166, 168, 187, 384, 431,446,449,461 urddhvapdtana yantra. See pdtana urddbvaretas, 233, 240, 248, 251, 284, 341, 483. See also adhoretas urethral suction. See vajroli mudra uterine blood. See sexual fluids Uttar Pradesh, 98, 112, 121, 245, 310, 346-47, 392, 406, 414, 435. See also Ayodhya; Benares; Gorakhpur; Hardwar Uttarakurus, Land of, 355
Valabhl[-saila], 115-16, 119, 300, 40910, 505 Vdmakesvara Tantra, 163 Vdmamdrga, 256 vampires {siddhi of control over), 305, 306, 307, 309, 431, 442, 476; vampiresses (women and demonesses characterized as), 341-42, 441,
Vacaspati Misra, 58 Vadava, 472; birthplace of Gorakh, 422, 472; name of a Rasa Siddha, 8 2; vadavdmukha-bida, 449; vadavdmukha-rasa, 436. See also badava 473 Vagbhatta, the Elder, 52, 65, 379, 390, Van der Veer, Peter, 345 415 (see also Astdnga Samgraha); Van Kooij, Karel R., 295 Vagbhatta the Younger, 390 (see Varana River. See Benares also Astdnga Hrdaya); Vagbhatta Varnaratnakara of Kavisekaracarya JyII, 82, 127, 167, 411 (see also otisvara, 80, 391, 393, 395; list of Rasaratnasamucchaya) Siddhas in, 84 vaidyas (Ayurvedic physicians), 13, 22, varnas (castes or colors of minerals), 100, 154, 192, 198, 208-9, 2 '4> " 3 . 336, 359.4 2 1
Vaikhdnasa Smdrta Sutra, 491 43i Vdsavadattd of Subandhu, 60, 64, 110, Vairag panth, 93, 97, 396, 399 405 Vaisnava sects and sectarianism, 99, Vasuki, 114, 190, 214, 221, 289, 447, 159. 357 464, 505 vdjikarana (sexual rehabilitation therapy), 25-26, 266, 518. See also aph- vdyu (wind). See sacrifice, Vedic Vdyutattvam Bbdvanopadesa of Ghorarodisiacs Vajrasattva, 70, 365, 373, 382, 394, 449 ksa, 404 Vajrayana Buddhism, 35, 65, 66, 70Vedanta, 18, 20, 32-36, 189, 206, 222, 72, 80, 101, 126, 171, 196, 201, 357. 4*6 221, 234, 247, 251-52, 260, 379, 381, 382, 384, 385, 389, 397, 399, 454. 455. 4 8 3 . 5°9; Highest Yoga Tantra, 136, 386, 390, 404; Tibetan Nyingma school, 65, 71, 105, 221, 379, 385. See also Buddhist divinities; Mahasiddhas vajroli mudra, 198-201, 253, 276, 282, 322, 341, 454, 455, 473, 482, 483, 498; in Mahayana sources, 63, 201; parallel Chinese technique, 63. 7*
vedha[na] ("piercing," transmutation of metals by mercury), 265, 268, 303, 313-15, 321, 490, 507; binduvedha, 312; five types, 159, 209, 459; kotavedhi-rasa, 409; linguistic alternation with bedhana/bhedana, 313; mahdvedha (yogic practice), 282, 303, 319, 511; rasavedha, 259; rasaviddhi, 507; s'abda-vedha, 209, 212, 320, 511; vedba[mayidlksd], 182, 312-14, 321, 368, 508, 509. See also piercing
595
594
Index
Index Vetalapancavimsati, 306, 309. vibhuti. See siddhis Vidya Pltha, 79, 135-37, 156, 173, 176-77, 386, 389, 404, 416, 424, 441.444 Vidyadharas (Wizards), 3, 52, 56-58, 74-75. 99. 118-19, " 4 . 2 47. 259. 292. 3°7. 323~34 passim, 355, 373. 4 J 5 . 5 1 2 . 5'4. 5 l 6 ; J a i n traditions of, 387, 516; rig 'dzin in Tibetan traditions, 387; three levels of, 329-30; vidyddharayantra, 248-51, 480, 482, 490, 494; Vidyadharls, 192, 325; Vidyarajas in Buddhist traditions, 373, 387, 516. Vidyesvaras, 168, 177-78, 213, 416, 442, 462 Vijayanagara (Hampi), 102, 383, 396, 406, 407, 419 Vikramaditya, name of several kings, 115,236,306-7,311,313 Vimalananda, 201, 341, 454 Vimalaprabha. See Kdlacakra Tantra vimaria. See light Vinds'ikba Tantra, 432, 472 Vinayaka. See Ganesa Vindhyas, 157, 381 viparita, reverse sexual position, 308, 313; viparitakarani (yogic posture), 249, 482, 490 vira, 239, 323. See zhopahi Vlrabhadra, 286, 417 Viramahesvaragama, i n Vlrasaivas, 46, 97, 102-3, III—IJ| 129, 2 37-38, 314, 375, 391, 393, 406, 477 Viruva-pa (Virupa), 252 Visnu, 46, 59, i n , 124, 141, 146, 159,
162, 224, 227, 289, 294, 296, 315, 317, 318, 327, 347, 415, 451, 495; identified with Dattatreya in Maharashtra, 92, 411; Narayana, the cosmic yogin, 215, 221 (see also pralaya) Visva Hindu Parisad (Hindu World Council), 347, 519 Visvamitra, 304-7 Visvanath, 226, 398 Visvarupa, 189, 315 Vivekamdrtanda of Gorakhnath, 141, 169 Vividhatirthakalpa of Jlnaprabhasuri, "7.479 volcanos. See geothermal phenomena Vrnda, 76, 382, 386. See also Siddhiyoga Vyadi, 71, 74, 81-82, 86, 91, 125-26, 199,311,383,390,416 vydpana. See emanation Vyasa, 57-58, 422 vyoma (term for both mica and ether), 210-12, 241,459-60,477 Wakan [Ho ban] sans ts'ai t'ou boei, 203 Walleser, Max, 67 waters, magical, 113, 205, 238, 245, 261, 409, 446; Amrt Kund, 246; Cleaver Water (kartarijalam), 384;resuscitatingwater(#j7z/7wmjwlam), 113; Ret Kund, 246; Rock or Peak Water (sailodaka), 153, 316, 355, 409, 510; ritu Kund, 245. See also Candrakupa; geothermal phenomena. Wattelier, Alain, 478 Wayman, Alex, 382
Weber, Max, 385, 387 weights and measures, 510. See also pala Weikzas. See Zawgyis and Weikzas Weinberger, Steven, 404 Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine, 517 Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 435 wells, 237, 239, 240-53 passim, 280, 288, 289, 294, 297, 344, 449, 47879, 505; dedicated to Goddess, 245; inverted, 242-44; jirndndhakupa, 244; of mercury, 115, 117, 159, 162, 168, 191, 202, 205, 208, 212; Puran's Well, 245, 299-300, 478; romakupa (pores), 273, 495; water pots represented as, 242-43, 478; Well of Truth, 457 West, Indian exchanges with, 2, 87, 203-6, 376, 456 western India, 110-22, 422, 476 Western Transmission, 2, 4-5, 73, 79, 87-90,94, 112-13, 126, 129, 13335, 139-40, 143, 151, 180-81, 228, 230, 255, 389, 423, 481. See also Goraksa Samhita; Kubjika; Kubjikdmata; Manthdnabhairava Tantra; Satsahasra Samhita Wilkinson, Chris, 386 wine, ritual use of, 137, 220, 231, 234, 252, 455. See alsopancamakara Wink, Andre, 412 withdrawal and return, yogic, 33, 3839,42,46-47, 185,221,251,263, 290, 293, 318,463 Work in Two Parts, 14, 57, 173, 26365, 266, 274, 275, 277, 281, 294, 315.372
worship, of chemicals. See rasacikitsd worship, tantric, 4, 54, 79, 89, 131, 135-40, 143-45, 150. I 52, 157. 163, 167, 168, 169, 172, 173, 176, 179-81, 241, 258, 284, 306, 324, 355. 39i. 424. 43°. 44°. 441. 442. 443, 450, 454, 473, 488. See also erotico-mystical practice; pancamakara; yoni-puja written transmission, xii, 145, 161. See also oral transmission Wujastyk, Dominik, xiii, 104, 115, 4io, 435 Yadavas of Devagiri, 94, 104-6, 11214, 127, 147, 167, 393, 408-9. See also Devagiri; Sirighana Yadavji Trikamji Acarya, 117 Ydjnavalkya Smili, 37, 494 Yajur Veda, 189, 499 Yaksas (Dryads), 58-59; Yaksinls, 104, J53.475 Yama, 11, 23,46, 171, 259, 280, 295, 340, 409, 429, 475, 497; iron arises from seed of, 190 Yamantaka, 220-21. See also Bhairava Yamuna River, 225-26, 277, 480 yantras (alchemical apparatus), 78, 145, 160, 169, 181, 183, 241, 248, 25051, 257-58, 327, 333, 426, 480; bicameral configuration, 247-52, 256, 328, 479. See also damaru; patana; Vidyadharas Yasodhara [Bhatta], 82, 159. See also Rasaprakdsa Sudhakara year: solar, 23-25, 28, 362, 469; semesters of, 22-26, 30, 41, 46, 318, 363; seasons of, 23-24, 29, 362
596
Index yoga: ati-yoga in Ayurveda, 23; a-yoga in Yoginis, 4, 134-35, ' 3 8 . J 5 2 - 5 3 . l56< Ayurveda, 23; sama-yoga in Ay157. '59. l 6 8 , 169, 173, 176-77. urveda, 20, zy,yogdgni (see fire); 180, 182, 1 9 9 - 2 0 0 , 223, 229, 235, yoga-ksema in Rg Veda, 19-20. See 261, 323, 324, 334, 442, 466, 512, also Nath Siddhas; Pasupatas; Yoga 517; Buddhist Kapalika-YoginI Sutras cult, 136, 386, 390, 404; sixtyYoga Sutras of Patanjali, 57-58, 373, four, 421, 424, 483;yoginf-bhu (yogic child), 200. See also Dombl; 422, 494; classic definition of yoga in, 273 DutI; mouth Yogis. See Jogis Yoga Vasistha, 239, 439 Yogabija of Gorakhnath, 100, 141, 255, Yogisampradayaviskrti, attributed to Jnanesvara, 113, 134, 236, 391, 425,512,513 408, 411, 466, 474, 500, 504 Yogadipika of Gorakhnath, 141, 407 yoni, 194-96, 234, 247, 269, 296, 485; yogagni. See fire yonicakra (fire-pit), 258; sulfur Yogamdrtanda of Gorakhnath, 141, called umd-yoni in Bhutiprakarana, 169, 482 157, 197, 432; upper and lower in Yogananda, 338 subtle body, 256, 443, 467, 482 Yogaratnamdld of Nagarjuna, 76, 112, (see also mouth, Yogini's upper and 114, 125, 131, 165,408,419,430 lower); yoni-puja, 195, ^jy,yoniYogaratndvali of Srikantha Siva, 131, tattva, 454, 455 465 Yogas'ataka of Nagarjuna, 75-76, 387, 388 Yogavisaya of Matsyendra, 484, 485 Yogi, Surya Kumar, xii, 401, 479, 517 Yogindras, 440 YoginI Kaula, 5, 73, 88-89, I34~3^ 172, 200, 223, 229, 235, 261, 423, 466, 471
yuganathas, 135, 137, 181,416, 513. See also Siddha Cakra
Zawgyis and Weikzas (Burmese alchemists), 48, 124, 354, 384 Zimmerman, Francis, 2 2 Zulmat, 238
